Today we're going to take a posture of peace by letting love overcome all opposition in our lives.
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.
1 John chapter 4 verses 7 through 20. I know we're covering a lot of ground at once so just
sit back and soak this in while I read it. It says, Dear friends, let us love one another for
love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love
does not know God because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one
and only son into the world that we might live through him. This is love. Not that we loved God
but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends,
since God so loved us we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God but if we love
one another God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we live
in him and he in us. He has given us of his spirit and we have seen and testify that the father has
sent his son to be the savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the son of God,
God lives in them and they in God and so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever loves lives in God and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us
so that we have confidence on the day of judgment. In this world we are like Jesus.
Wow. Verse 18, there is no fear in love but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do
with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us.
Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love
their brother and sister whom they have seen cannot love God whom they have not seen.
This is such good news. It is so good. Okay, as we talked about yesterday, love empowers us to love.
Love himself empowers you and I to love with a love like no other. It's a love that this world
does not know. It's a love that this world cannot author or create because it's not a human love
that so easily withdraws itself when there is conflict or opposition or disapproval or
disagreement. Just read 1 Corinthians 13 if you want to know what you're actually capable of
with this kind of love. This kind of love overcomes all opposition. Now, Jesus tells us
in Matthew 544, love your enemies, bless them that persecute you, which has always been a hard
verse for me. You know, in this world we're going to have some enemies but for the Jesus follower,
the purpose of enmity is to empower you to love well. Okay, just let that sink in for just a
moment. Nothing, nothing is wasted in the kingdom. The purpose of an enemy of opposition is to teach
us, to lead us in how to move in love of God. Okay, here's what I've been practicing and not
always perfectly but joyfully because this is a process where I'm being empowered and empowered
more. Rather than coming under the heaviness of opposition, I am learning to come under the weight
of the glorious empowering presence of love because when I read Matthew 544 for the thousandth
time, I finally realized something. I have a choice. Now, of course, Satan is our real enemy
and he's the one who brings opposition through other peoples and circumstances to try to literally
take us out, to destroy us. So, God doesn't create an enemy or opposition to teach us a lesson.
Instead, the Holy Spirit, the helper,
He leverages what Satan sends to harm us to lead us into discovering even more
amazing things about the love of God and become even more empowered by it. So our
real enemy, Satan, has absolutely no defense against love. Even when he tries
to come against us, we're more empowered by it. Love is who God is. Satan can't
take love out because he can't take God out. So as we talked about in yesterday's
episode, the starting point for everything in the kingdom is to first
receive so then we can respond, so then we can give, okay? So I realized that I
had a really hard time putting Matthew 544 into practice because I did not
believe I was completely loved. I didn't feel like I had any love to draw on.
In fact, having any kind of enemy or opposition feels like evidence sometimes
just to prove that we're not loved. It's like, God, if you really loved me, why
didn't you protect me from these people? Why didn't you, you know, keep these hard
circumstances from coming my way? You know, and for some of us, this is a very
deep wound because our enemies here on earth have been people who were once
close to us or were supposed to love us and protect us. Maybe you didn't have
great parents. Maybe you've experienced abuse or abandonment from family members.
Maybe you've been betrayed by friends who swore up and down they would have
your back for life. And that pain runs deep, but love himself can heal even
those deep wounds. Your heavenly Father, your true Father, your faithful
friend is permanently passionate about you. And while you may find yourself in
opposition where there just seems to be nothing, no love to draw on, you know,
nothing, love himself says, draw on me. Not from without, but from within. This
love invites us to rise above the things on the lower level and live life on a
much higher level. We don't get to choose our family. We can't always prevent or
protect, you know, people from withdrawing their love from us or hurting us, but we
get to choose what level we live on. So today, as you enter the arena of life
once again, your home, your workplace, your relationships, your screen, choose
your level. Let love bring you to a higher level that overcomes all
opposition. First receive and believe that he completely and totally loves you
so that in every situation, even in opposition, you can always respond in
complete love. The promise of perfect peace is found in
Isaiah 26.3. In Hebrew, it is shalom, shalom, meaning complete wholeness,
nothing missing, nothing broken. This is who you are in Jesus because of Jesus.
You are a living testimony of Jesus's ultimate win. With every step you take
today, you're putting Jesus's victory on display and Satan's defeat on replay.