as I said, you cannot love someone you don't understand. understanding them makes it easy (or easier). so if heart love begins with understanding, how do you get understanding? you do that by asking questions and then listening.
and then how do you love those people that even when you do understand them, they can't be loved? philippians 1.8 (niv), GOD can testify how i long for all of you with the affection of CHRIST JESUS.
in greek the word "affection" is the word for "intestines". king james translates this bowels. now in greek society, the greeks thought that the seat of the emotions was in your stomach, your liver, your internal organs.
so paul is saying here, "i've got a gut feeling of love for you." it is intensive love that makes me love even the unlovely. that is not a natural kind of love. it is a supernatural kind of love and that's why paul said it's not from himself, but it's the affection of CHRIST JESUS.
human love wears out and dies. this happens to everybody. the only kind of love that lasts and lasts in spite of heartache and difficulty in tough circumstances is GOD's love - the affection of CHRIST JESUS . that's the only kind of love that lasts.
romans 5.5 (ms), we can't round up enough containers to hold everything GOD generously pours into our lives through the HOLY SPIRIT!
GOD's love is not something you work up. it is something that is poured into me by the HOLY SPIRIT as i let HIM live in me day by day. GOD's love is something HE does in me and through me. it is a gift as you let the HOLY SPIRIT live in you moment by moment.
just a thought from the front porch...
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