#RestoreLove

It may seem unusual to have our April theme be #RestoreLove when typically the message of love is the hot topic in February, right? Not this year! As the Lord set the schedule He had us #RestoreOthers in January, and then #RestorePartnership in February. It appears He planned for us to #RestoreFulfillment the Jesus way and then flow right into a discussion and discovery of love – as He defines it.

Love is an extremely broad term in our language these days, but within the Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Greek in the New it wasn’t that way. They each have numerous definitions for various expressions of love. Whereas we, as English speaking Americans, just lump everything into one word. We love everything from our favorite foods and beverages to the people in our circle.

When Jesus was asked by the expert in Mosaic Law what was the greatest commandment, He replied, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for others]" (Matthew 22:37-39, AMP).

God wants us to express love to others in a way that reveals His character to them. God IS love and because we know Him we can love as He does. You can be sure courageous faith will be required to love like Jesus loves, but we can also know doing so is a game changer for how we connect in our relationships. Jesus is our example and if we train our eyes to look through a lens of kingdom identity and follow His lead, we will #RestoreLove.