The Love Dare - Day 40

Day 40!  So does that mean it's coming to an end - this love dare thing?  Or is it just beginning for real?  I presume the Love Dare, as depicted in the book, was meant to kick-start a whole new life of love.  It was meant to be a beginning.  And I'm certain the original Love Dare, as depicted in the Bible, with its repeated call to "love one another," was meant to start something that would last forever.  When do we get to the end of learning to "excel still more" in our love as 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10 instructs us?  So this can't be the end.  It has to be the beginning.  So, here's what I've learned and plan to take with me into the next phase. 

When left to myself, I love me better than I love anybody else.  I don't naturally "regard [others] as more important than yourself" (Philippians 2:3).  I need supernatural help if I'm going to go beyond the 'I'll love you if you love me' kind of love which is typical in this world. 

Even when I embrace God's help and begin to love sacrificially, I have to be intentional about it every day or it won't happen.  My default mode (into self-centeredness) is really strong. I always fall back into a "me" focus. 
When it comes to loving people, I need the the warning of Proverbs 21:5.  "The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage, but everyone who is hasty {doesn't take time to make a plan} comes surely to poverty."

Love needs to be demonstrated - something that can be seen and felt and experienced.  That's how God does it.  "God demonstrates His own love toward us..." (Romans 5:8).   

Motives count.  "Whatever is not from faith is sin" (Romans 14:23).  In other words, love for the wrong reason doesn't register as love in the eyes of God.  It's just another self-centered act.

We're designed to be devoted in our love for people.  "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love," Romans 12:10 says.  And in Timothy 4:15-16, after a long series of commands which include the command to "love," Timothy is instructed to "take pains with these things; be absorbed in them."  Sounds like God wants us to be passionate about loving people.

It's okay to do the same thing over and over, if it's an act of love.  In Acts 9:36, a woman named Dorcas was praised as a woman "abounding in deeds of kindness and charity which she continually did."  Repetition is a good thing when it's love (or truth) that's being repeated.

When we start out good and then fail (as we so often do), we can heed the urging of Jesus as expressed to the church at Ephesus.  "Repent and do the deeds you did at first."  We can start over and get back in the game!  Grace is when God bestows a benefit on someone who deserves to be punished, and that is what happens every time a believer fails to live up to the standards of God.  Instead of punishing us for choosing to fall short of what we know to be right, He graciously points to Jesus for having endured the punishment for our rebellion already and invites us to start over!

And finally, we need to persevere.  In that same string of commands in 1 Timothy - the ones we are told to be passionate about - we're also told to "persevere in."  We're supposed to keep going.
So I think I will.  It's been a good experience, and I'm pretty sure there's a lot more to be learned.  I'd like to find out for sure.

As for the blog, I think I'll keep that going too.  It might morph into a different focus - maybe a bit broader.  Or maybe it will fizzle out completely.  I don't know.  But it's been a great accountability partner to me.  Every night comes faithfully around and demands that I give some sort of description of how I've spent my day before God.  It's really helped me stay on my toes.  And maybe it's helped somebody else, too.  I'll let God sort that part out.  For me, I'll try to have an idea by tomorrow night what this next phase will look like!