Love is power. To be more precise, it is God's love that empowers us to pursue and honor him.
So how exactly does this work?
We are created by and for God. For us to operate as we were designed we must be in perfect union with God, who is the source of love, life, and all things. Without being “plugged in” we only are operating on ¹temporary borrowed power.
Because we are ²finite in our love, life, and all things, it is not possible for us to love with sacrificial infinite love in our own strength. God ³alone is the source of endless love. If we are to love with God's love, we must have God's love flowing to, in, and through us.
And how does this occur? In and through Christ. It is because of Christ, God's love is freely and fully extended to us. If and when we choose to believe and receive it, it is poured out in us and out to others through us. But not without Christ. Without Christ, we are disconnected from God and therefore also from His perfect infinite love.
For a further discussion on being empowered from within, click here.
For a further discussion on the strength needed for self-denial, click here.
Additional comments in footnotes below.
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¹What do I mean by borrowed power? Everything we are, have and use to sustain ourselves emotionally and physically comes from God, whether we acknowledge this or not. He gives us these things as an expression of his love for us. If we refuse to recognize - believe - this, we will go into eternity without all that we now have and are i.e. it's temporary and borrowed. If we do not recognize this we will eventually lose it. We will go into eternity with only the memory of the things that we had and were, but no longer have (we may still be who we are now with all our gifts and abilities but no way to utilize them to derive a sense of value). This will be the essence of hell - an ongoing memory and constant reminder of what we used to but no longer have use of. We will be in a perpetual state of unfulfilled longing and endless thirst with nothing to quench it. This is the natural outcome of enjoying the good gifts of God in creation now without rightfully acknowledging him as the Giver of these and all things.
²Though within ourselves we are finite in giving love, we have the capacity to receive and experience infinite love - only because God is infinite and created us like himself so we might partake of him. Because we can receive endless love, we can give it also.
But apart from God, we do not have within ourselves infinite love to give to others i.e. only God is the source of love, not us. To give infinite love, we must first receive and partake of infinite love. And that is only within and from God. He alone is perfect, none stop love. He alone is the great I AM, the Alpha and Omega, the cause and end (goal) for all things. Because we are finite we must be plugged into the infinite source to partake of infinite love and in turn pass it on to others.
We are like the batteries in a cell phone or electric car.
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Grace to you
Jim Deal