Day Twenty-Eight:
Hebrews 13:1 “Let brotherly love continue.”
I love my husband and my mother more than I can say. The way that I feel about these two people can only be described as powerful. While I love many people in my life, (other than the Lord) my husband and my mom are the two most important people in my world. They, each in different ways and with different methods, have given me reason to feel a ‘brotherly love’ that is stronger than I could possibly describe with mere words. This love they stir in me is a love that promises my heart there truly is good in the world and, even when I don’t understand it, there truly is a reason for everything that comes into my world.
It just happened recently that both my husband and my mother sought out my help because they both were experiencing health problems. It was then that I realized, in helping them – offering them a tangible suggestion of my feelings for them – I was being given a blessing from God Himself, a blessing far greater than most any other blessing I’d known. In helping a loved one, there is music that plays out the song of hope, the sound of compassion, the dance of light across the spirit. In helping a loved one, there comes a sense of love’s power that can’t be overlooked. It is a beautiful that only God above could have enthused.
Brotherly love is a love that is unselfish, generous and magnanimous. It is kind and considerate. It is understanding and accepting. It is willing to give more than one might think possible and with a sincerity that comes from loving unconditionally, unreservedly. This is the kind of love Jesus taught us to share with our brothers, our sisters, our family, friends and even strangers who are in need of a glimpse of what it means to give away a sincere expression of His most amazing gift, the love that pours out blessings through our hearts, our lives, our gifts to others. He is love and when we offer another that brotherly love He intends for us to, we offer someone a glimpse of the One who saves believers and frees hearts from their prisons of fear, doubt and destruction.
While I may not feel like I’m enough, there is One who is enough. His light pierces through the darkest shadows, erases the worst despair, uncovers the good where I might only see the bad. He gives me the courage to face the worst that comes – the sickness, the sadness, the sorrow that might feel like it is going to overwhelm me with its worry and disquiet. While I can’t see the way through, He is making a way through so that I never need to look beyond my prayers for His grace, His healing, His help. I never need look beyond my faith to discover the answer for whatever discomfort I might be facing. He is with me and He is for me. His love will heal me even when I don’t know the healing is coming. He will heal my loved ones even when their burden seems beyond curing. He is the love that stills all my fears and washes away all my tears with the blood that He shed so that I might live!
Brotherly love is a love that gives. It is love that is stirred to life by the most powerful love that we’ll ever know, the love of our Savior who chose to die so we could know God, the One who created us with a love far more amazing than any love we could think of showing on this earth. His love stills the darkness, quiets every fear, restores the soul to a place of hope and makes a way through the pain and tears. He is love and while I may not always be who I hope to be and I may not always offer love that is selfless and altruistic, I know that He will reach through my paltry attempts and reveal a beautiful love that is beyond what my heart can comprehend. With Jesus, I know that my love for others is blessed with peace that can’t be expressed. It is love that only God Himself could have roused.
A Prayer & A Promise:
Dear Lord, You know the reasoning behind all my thoughts, all of my questions, all of my hopes. You know what I’m saying, when I don’t have the words. You understand and bless me, even when I don’t realize I’ve been heard. You are the music that comforts me when I hurt. You are the miracle that never lets me feel like I’m without hope. You stir up a love in me that I could never have imagined, a love that hears the heart’s beat and believes when I can’t find a reason. You light up the heart in me with a flame of kindness, a gentle that is fulfilling, assurance that the best I can be will always come from know the One who sought me out and freed me from the sins that had me feeling like I’d never know the peace that comes from knowing You, the One who rewrote my story so that I can now read that story without feeling any form of grief. You are the light that shines through the shadows, reassuring, restoring, convincing me that – without You, I would never be capable of loving with the brotherly love that You aroused in my soul when You saved me and made my heart whole. I love You, Jesus, and thank YOU so very much for this wonderful that reminds me You are everything to me!
“Love is not only something you feel, it is something you do.” — David Wilkerson