I was chatting with my mum on the phone the other day and she said, “God is love and He can’t be anything else.” This profound statement caused me to dig deep into my bookshelf and find out why God is love, what love is, and why, even when it’s hard, love always chooses the best. 

The ‘love’ chapter as it is often known, is found in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and reminds us that even though some of us in this world may have the gifting of eloquent speech, knowledge and insight of mysteries, and faith strong enough to move mountains, it’s like listening to a clanging cymbal that does nothing but annoys if we choose to live without love. 

In Bill Johnson’s book, ‘God is Good: He’s better than you think’ he shares his thoughts on how God appointed Adam to a mission that wasn’t based on his gifts and talents but based on God’s authority which in turn gave man authority to express dominion over the earth. How was he to fulfil this mission?  Through love. However, the man listened to the serpent’s lie that dripped with jealousy and revenge, hoodwinking Adam, and Eve to willingly hand over their authority and dominion to the prince of darkness and chaos.  

And it seems that every time we tune into the recent news headlines, darkness and chaos continues to gain control, it continues to pursue leverage and use its authority. However, the worst of times can produce something in us that rises above the darkness and chaos and chooses love as the best way to respond. 

Even though we find ourselves living in a fallen world, it is still our primary mission to represent a God who is love through our words and actions. Each time you choose to love as the best response, you’re taking back the ground that the enemy wants to claim.  

In 2 Corinthians 5:14, Paul explains how we, as believers, become transformed because the controlling force in our lives is the love of Jesus. This isn’t to say that’s it’s easy. Letting love choose the best is something we all need to keep practising. But a lot of things in life require a lot of practice before we can get better at it. Practising our transparency, our vulnerability, our willingness to let love respond in ways that help us show the message of reconciliation, the message of the cross, the good news that heals, restores, and resurrects things that seemed dead, has to be the driving force that fuels our mission.   

I don’t know about you, but I have found as the pandemic continues, God is clipping and pruning my faith. He’s taking away the ‘dead’ stuff, so my faith bears more fruit. Laura Kelly Fanucci sums up the pandemic nicely when it comes to choosing to love over choosing revenge, “When this ends, may we find that we have become more like the people we wanted to be, we were called to be, we hoped to be, and may we stay that way – better for each other because of the worst.” 

God has commissioned us to become more like the people He called us to be since the Garden of Eden. And like Laura said, I do hope that when this pandemic is all over, we stay that way. We stay that way, not because of our gifts and our talents. Not because we have eloquent speech, knowledge and insight of mysteries, or a faith strong enough to move mountains, but because we live in a right relationship with a God. A God who IS love and can’t be anything else. A God who chooses to love us over and over again.

Because love always chooses the best regardless of how much we don’t deserve it.  

Wendy xo    

During this pandemic, where have you had to choose love as the best response to a situation even though it was the hardest thing to do? 

I pray today that you will feel the intimacy of God’s love wrap around you like a thick, warm blanket and remind you of your mission. A mission that commissions you to be God’s ambassador. And this mission, if you chose to accept it, is to shine His light into this dark and chaotic world and become love.