The Power of Love

Over the past weeks and months, I've had encounters and reminders that fall under the category of "the power of love".  I used those words as a title for a post I wrote for our church Advent blog but even before then the nudges were coming, the phrase was floating around in my thoughts.  Not a bad thing to have hanging out in your mind.  This morning as I wrote in my journal and reflected on yesterday's prayer opportunities, I had even more examples and thoughts to file away in my mental file cabinet.  I wondered: how many people really have an encounter - a true experience - with the power of God's love?  Are they just words heard in a sermon or read in an inspirational book (or blog)?  How does the reality line up with the words?  

We see the power of love in our many relationships; it can bring comfort, happiness, laughter and even sadness when it's taken away.  We get a deeper glimpse into love's power to render us speechless at the birth of our child, a marriage, or a death, sickness or other tragedy.  These experiences, as strong as they can be, are only mere shadows of the power of the love of God.  Using those same words from my earlier comment (comfort, happiness, laughter, sadness) and examining or experiencing those emotions in the light of God's love is like going form 0 - 60 in a nanosecond.  The deep comfort God provides is a comfort beyond anything the world can give us; it goes to the core of who we are, the very heart of our beings.  Happiness becomes true joy; laughter can become a joyous release, a child-like freedom way beyond the laughter we share over humorous events.  Attending the birth of a child, sharing that experience in the light of God's presence and love, can open our eyes to creation as never before, to the precious, unconditional and holy love God has for us, his children.

I prayed this morning to be allowed to continue to share the power of God's love with those he sends my way.  I'm blessed to be part of a powerful and active prayer ministry and see people's lives transformed over and over again by that power.  There is no greater force, no greater power, no greater love; it's so far from the watered-down version we are prone to believe in.  The thing that continues to amaze me is how God allows me, as a prayer minister, to be ministered to and blessed by the same powerful love he is pouring out on the person we are praying for.  I get to splash around in the same waterfall of love and for that I will be eternally grateful, blessed and amazed!

I've been away from this blog for quite a while.  During that time, I've been working on my own thoughts and ways of understanding God's hand on my life.  It's been a time of prayer, reflection, discussion, lots of questions and sometimes few answers; but always the awareness that God has never left.  He is, in fact, closer and more present than I can ever imagine.  He's teaching me more deeply what it means to abide in him, to walk in his power and love even into dark or difficult places, to love those who may be difficult to love, to serve when, instead, I want to be served, and to look to him as the sufficiency for ALL my needs. He is enough.  He is more than enough.  When I look to people in my life to do what only God can do, he gently pulls me back and reminds me to lift my eyes and look to him.  

Even as I wrote the words "lift my eyes", I had to pause.  It's a wrong description, isn't it?  We don't even have to look up or around or out there somewhere to see God.  At that first gentle prompting he's already looking at us, calling our name and drawing us to himself by the power of his sweet, tender love.