In This is Love

 

How Do I Love Thee?

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being and ideal grace.

I love thee to the level of every day’s

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for right.

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

 

 When I was a schoolgirl, this was the picture of love for me. Then again, I was also enamored with Anne of Green Gables who is probably the world’s purest romantic. Here Elizabeth breaks out the ways her love is felt and expressed. It knows no bounds. It is felt in the immense and insignificant. This love is pure, free and filled with passion. Every feeling, emotion, experience in her life from breath to smiles to tears is permeated with this love and she prays that God would make it even purer after death. It’s an amazing word picture that has been passed down through the years because we can feel with the author. But there is a deeper, more ancient love that is also simpler.

In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.  1 John 4:10

Here’s the Thing: God loved us first. God loved us best. We cannot compete, but we can join in His love with a thankful heart!

Abiding in Jesus

  1. Week 1: Trusting the Gardener's Work
    1. John 15:1 - Seven Things Jesus Is
    2. John 15:2 - Pinch Those Suckers Out!
    3. Philippians 2:12-13 - Working Out My Salvation
    4. Matthew 5:16 - Stay Salty!
    5. 1 John 1:6 - Walking in Relationship
  2. Week 2: Bearing Lasting Fruit
    1. John 15:3-4 - It Takes Two to Abide
    2. John 15:5 - Grafted In
    3. John 15:6 - The Most Important Post You'll Ever Read
    4. Psalm 1:1-3 - What We Expect to See
    5. Galatians 5:22 - The Fruit of the Spirit's Not a Coconut!
  3. Week 3: Abiding in Jesus Through His Word
    1. John 15:7-8 - Lost in the Wilderness
    2. John 8:31-32 - The Truth Shall Set You Free
    3. Psalm 119:9-11 - Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth
    4. Psalm 119:15-16 - Considering His Ways
    5. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 - How is He Going to Use THAT?!?
  4. Week 4: Abiding in Jesus Through Obedience
    1. John 15:9-10 - Love, Honor and Obey
    2. James 1:22 - The Forgetful Listener
    3. 1 John 3:24 - How Can I Know if I Have the Holy Spirit in Me?
    4. Matthew 7:24-25 - What's Your House Made Of?
    5. John 14:23-24 - Obeying with All My Heart
  5. Week 5: Abiding in Jesus Through Love
    1. John 15:11-12 - Waking Up on the Right Side of the Bed
    2. John 15:13-14 - Laying Down Your Life
    3. 1 John 4:10 - In This is Love
    4. 1 John 4:11-12 - Loving our Enemies
    5. Romans 12:9-13 - Roadmap to Abiding in Christ
  6. Week 6: Chosen and Commissioned by Christ to Bear Fruit
    1. John 15:15 - A Friend that Sticks Closer than a Brother
    2. John 15:16 - Bloom Where You’re Planted
    3. Ephesians 2:10 - Do the Thing in Front of You
    4. Galatians 6:9 - We Must Not Grow Weary in Doing Good
    5. John 15:17 - What Does Abiding in Christ Look Like?

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