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perfected by God's love



7 is the number of completeness and reminds us that Christ is our life, and He makes us complete.  Literally Jesus completes our life through what He does in and through our lives.

It is daily that God is completely us.  He is working in me.  Is He working in you?  Do you see it?  As we push into what God says and listen intently to what He says that is a definite move toward completeness, toward strength and perfection.  No, we cannot and will not be perfect till we get to Heaven, but God is perfecting us. 

The Bible talks about what love does to our lives, but what I want to point us to even more is the fact that the presence of God’s love is the stamp of fact that God is at work.  Love is a given.  We need love.  We want love, but to love as God loves, that is unconditional love, is not typical.  It is a different kind of love if you will.  God’s love through us shows that God is in us and is changing us.

The fruit of the Spirit is one more place where this is real.  The life changed by God bears fruit in incredible ways.  There is life change, that leads to character change which leads to living changed all because of what God did.

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

That is clear.  When God comes in, He transforms our lives.  Wait.  When God comes in, He completes our lives.  That’s even clearer.  God completes us and brings us to the best that we were created for.  No, we are not perfect.  But we are growing more and more to be like Jesus.

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.  Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

When God tells us to love others, He is reminding us that He created us to be in relationship with Him and with other people.  Further God tells us that we are to continue to loving people.  That means that loving people is a choice we must make.  God is in us.  God loves us.  God loves through us which changes us and changes the people we love.

So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other.  Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.  Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.

Love proves that God is in us and is changing us.  Love is the evidence that the Spirit of God is the one we are following.

Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear.  If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.  We love each other because he loved us first.

The love of God, perfect love, is changing us.  His love is removing fear from our lives.  The wrong kind of love doesn’t get rid of what we are afraid of.  God replaces fear with faith by allowing His love to grow bigger and bigger in our lives.  God’s love is making us more and more like Jesus.  He gives us confidence like nothing else can.

I need that.  I want that.  Let God continue to work in your life and make you more like Jesus.  He is perfecting you each day and each moment of each day.

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