Nine Characteristics of Conquering Love (Rom 8:31-39)
We live in a world where we have to choose daily between being a victor or a victim. Fortunately the Lord gives us the power to overcome evil with good through the power of His conquering love. Here are nine essential characteristics of a love that helps us not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good:
1. CONQUERING: We are more than conquerors through Him who loves us. (Rom 8:37) Because of the finished work of Christ on calvary we simply need to appropriate the identity we already possess in Christ. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world.
2. CONSTANT: Who will separate us from the love of God? No one can condemn us. No trouble can alarm us. No danger will overwhelm us. No persecution can cause us to be abandoned. No pressure can crush us. No put down can get to us. We are assured of the consistency and constancy of His love at all times and in all situations.
3. CELEBRATING: We can rejoice in the love of God always as it gives us strength, health and vitality. His lovingkindness is better than life. He is constantly interceding for us from the right hand of the throne of God. The Lord God is in the midst of us shouting over us with singing of triumph.
4. COMPLETE: We can praise and thank God that there is nothing lacking in His love for us. His love is perfect. There is no fear in love for perfect love casts out fear. We can now love without hesitation because He first loved us. (I John 4:10)
5. COMPANIONSHIP: We can praise and thank God because He will never leave us or forsake us so that we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper, from whom then will I be afraid." His fellowship in the Spirit assures us that we are never alone. He assures us of a great sense of our belonging and acceptance as one of His beloved.
6. CONFIDENT: We can praise and thank God that we can be confident that we can do everything He asks us to do with the help of Christ who gives us the strength, power and confidence that we can do all things through Him who strengthens us. His love instills in us love from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith. His love assures us that no matter what happens to us in life we can feel assured that we are His children and know He will perfect that which concerns us.
7. CONSIDERATE OF EVERYTHING: We can praise, rejoice and thank God that His love considers every need, every problem and every challenge that we will face. There is nothing that His love overlooks. We do not have to worry, fret or get angry when things do not go our way since His love is sovereign over all. Even Job concluded His life of suffering by saying, "Lord, now I know you can do all things and no purpose of yours can be thwarted." (Job. 42:1,2)
8. CHRIST-CENTERED: We can praise and thank God that His love points us to Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. His love is always patient and kind, not jealous or envious or boastful or proud or haughty or selfish or rude. His love is not self-centered, easily angered, nor does it keep a record of wrongs, nor does it rejoice in evil, but rejoices in truth. It always bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things. His love never fails throughout eternity.
9. CARING OF OTHERS: We can praise and thank God that His love allows us to properly care for others. Through His love we do not have to worry about loving people so that they reciprocate the favor. Our agape love is an unconditional love that freely accepts another and seeks their good without strings attached.
Now abide faith, hope and love. But, love is the greatest of all.
Illustration: "In All Things Be Thankful"]
Back during the dark days of 1929, a group of ministers in the Northeast,
all graduates of the Boston School of Theology, gathered to discuss how they
should conduct their Thanksgiving Sunday services. Things were about as bad
as they could get, with no sign of relief. The bread lines were depressingly
long, the stock market had plummeted, and the term Great Depression seemed
an apt description for the mood of the country. The ministers thought they
should only lightly touch upon the subject Thanksgiving in deference to the
human misery all about them. After all, there was to be thankful for. But it
was Dr. William L. Stiger, pastor of a large congregation in the city that
rallied the group. This was not the time, he suggested, to give mere passing
mention to Thanksgiving, just the opposite. This was the time for the nation
to get matters in perspective and thank God for blessings always present,
but perhaps suppressed due to intense hardship.
I suggest to you the ministers struck upon something. The most intense
moments of thankfulness are not found in times of plenty, but when
difficulties abound. Think of the Pilgrims that first Thanksgiving. Half
their number dead, men without a country, but still there was thanksgiving
to God. Their gratitude was not for something but in something. It was that
same sense of gratitude that lead Abraham Lincoln to formally establish the
first Thanksgiving Day in the midst of national civil war, when the butcher’
s list of casualties seemed to have no end and the very nation struggled for
survival.
Perhaps in your own life, right now, intense hardship. You are experiencing
your own personal Great Depression. Why should you be thankful this day? May
I suggest three things?
1. We must learn to be thankful or we become bitter.
2. We must learn to be thankful or we will become discouraged.
3. We must learn to be thankful or we shall surly grow arrogant and
self-satisfied.
God bless the hurting hearts...
The walking wounded souls...
Bring peace unto them Lord,
With graciousness untold.
Let them mend in such a way
Their lives will overcome...
The pain and suffering they know,
The desperateness of some.
Let Your angels kiss the wounds,
And bring them peace again...
Bless the hearts who cry at night,
Allow the healing to begin.
Hold those hearts within Your hands,
That feel so tossed and torn...
The helpless and, the hopeless,
Let spirits be reborn.
Bless the hurting hearts, My Lord...
Bless souls so wracked with pain...
Too overcome with weariness,
To try to start again.
Let them see Your sunset
With faith enough to try,
To find the answers that they seek...
When teardrops have run dry.
Hold them in Your gentle hands,
And wipe away their tears...
Give them comfort, will to know,
You’re there when they have fears.
God bless the hurting hearts,
The souls in so much pain...
Let them see the sunrise
With faith to start again.
