Today we are going to take a posture of peace by receiving and I mean by fully embracing
the identity of love. Posture is a short audible fist bump to remind you God is with you
in everything. Together we're going to be emboldened to take a daily posture of perfect peace.
Okay, before we dive into today's episode, I want to give a quick family announcement,
and I'm sharing this here just in case you're not on my email list and you may have missed
the announcement that went out yesterday. So March is birth month for baby girl Van Zyl.
It's hard to believe she's going to be here in four-ish weeks. And as I prepare for maternity
leave, Posture is going to be moving to one weekly episode starting Monday, March 1st.
So starting next week, new episodes will be released every Monday. And coming soon,
you are going to get to meet some awesome Kingdom Messengers who I've invited to guest
host some future Posture episodes. Now I want to tell you I have been personally emboldened
by these Kingdom Messengers and their incredible messages, and I cannot wait to introduce them to
you. So only exciting things ahead for us. By the way, the best way to stay in touch with me,
to be the first to know about updates like these, Posture news, upcoming Kingdom Messenger
workshops that we are wanting to run in the summer, all you have to do is go to posture.today
to join my email list. Super simple, super easy, and that's the best way to kind of be the first
to know about these types of announcements. Okay, so let's dive into today's episode. So we have been
talking about love for a long time now, and here's the thing about love. Because again, we can become
so familiar with the world's imperfect demonstrations and definitions of love, and I think
that sometimes we can become jaded and cynical, maybe tempted at times to think that love is
fragile or weak, not really practical, doesn't really get results. Maybe you think that I'm
proposing that we live a life of passivity towards the hard issues in this world,
but we have to remember this. God is love, and God is none of those things. He's not fragile,
he's not weak, he's not passive. The Bible says God is all-powerful. So I want to encourage you
to never become cynical about the power of love. The call to live in love is not a call for
peacekeeping, it's a call for peacemaking. Jesus is our peacemaker. Because of Jesus, we have peace
with God, the Bible says, and we have a kingdom identity that is rooted in love that empowers us
to walk in peace and be peacemakers in this world. Now, I want to take you to a moment in scripture
where I just think it illustrates so profoundly what an identity of love looks like. So in John
13, chapter 3, it says, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands,
and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer
garments and taking a towel, tied it around his waist, and he began to wash the disciples' feet
and to wipe them from the towel that was wrapped around him. When Jesus, fully knowing who he was,
the power and the fullness of his kingdom identity, what did he do with that realization?
He didn't burn with rage. He didn't become passive. He didn't exalt himself or demand
that he be seen or served. He washed feet, a servant's task. This, by the way, happened
on the night that Jesus would be betrayed, denied, and led to the cross. On that night,
Jesus says, still in chapter 13, in verses 34 and 35, he tells his disciples,
a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another just as I have loved you.
You also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another. He knew he would be betrayed by Judas,
a friend and a follower. He knew Peter was going to deny him, not once, not twice, but three times.
He knew he was going to be unjustly murdered.
He knew who he was in the kingdom of God, and what does he do?
He washes feet, he serves communion, and he gives of himself.
He says, love one another just as much as I have loved you.
And he knew that by giving us himself, we would receive an identity where we would be
empowered to do what he said.
Now remember 1 John 4, I know we spent a lot of time there, 1 John 4 it says, in verse
16, so we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.
God is love, and whoever abides, lives in love, abides in God, and God abides in him.
By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment,
because as he is, so are we in this world.
This is such good news, this is freeing news, because this isn't a standard that we must
strive to achieve, this is an identity that we have been given to freely receive.
This is who you are, full of love himself.
So no matter what comes across your day, your weekend, your month, your year, I want you
to remember, you are empowered to live in radical love.