The Circle of Love

I referred to this idea in an earlier post. The whole point of this circle is to graphically show what is central to walking in relationship with our Father. Everything starts with His love for us. When we experience His love, we respond with our love for Him. Our love for Him is directly proportional to our experience of His love for us.

When we respond to Him in love, the natural result is obedience from the heart. Or, said another way, genuine love will always manifest itself with actions. This is a far cry from the outward obedience we may exhibit at times, the kind the Pharisees were masters at. It is the same obedience I demonstrate to my wife because of my love for her. It is not to gain her approval, but is an outward response of my inward love for her.

As we continue in obedience, we continue to experience His love, which starts the cycle all over again. The problem is that most of us either start out or dwell somewhere other than at the 12 o'clock position. We try hard to love God, or we try to obey Him, generally out of a sense of duty, or fear, or even guilt. And we land at the 3, 6 or 9 o'clock positions in hopes of experiencing His love. This is a performance based Christianity. Even loving Him can be performance based, if it doesn't originate with His love for us.

The wonderful invitation of the Gospel is to come find and live in the Father's love (His affection and delight) for us. If we find ourselves living in an area of disobedience, the key is not to try to change our ways and start living obediently again. How many times I've done that, crying out to God, "Okay, this time I mean it. I'm not going down that path again. I am going to obey!" And then I fall again.

And the whole time He is saying, "John, if you only knew how much I love you. If you only knew what a treasure and delight you are to Me. I know you failed...I knew you would. But My love for you has not changed. Won't you please just come sit on my lap, rest your head on My chest and live in My love for you? You'll see that your life will change from the inside out when you truly enjoy living out of My love for you."

Now THAT is freedom, and THAT is learning to live loved!