Livin' on Love! (see notes for image source)
“Livin’ on Love” is an endearment I sometimes offer my wife when something we were counting on to happen doesn’t work the way we hoped. It goes something like,
“Well, honey while that car repair just zapped our savings, at least we have each other - ‘Livin’ on love!”
If that comes across as lame to you, be assured that she usually sees it that way as well. Protecting the so-called nest egg sure seems more secure than simply “Livin’ on Love!”
Then again, what if God secured the love we’re livin’ on? “God is love,” said John in his first epistle (1 John 4:7-8) and he “holds everything together,” wrote Paul to the Colossians (Colossians 1:17). Therefore, if we’re livin’ on God’s love, how much more secure can we be?
Our pastor recently completed a great 13-message series entitled, “Making Room.” He covered such topics as “Making room for … the Gospel, the poor, widows and orphans, your neighbor, children, your betrayers, and grief. He completed the series with “Making Room for Love.”
A point of his love message that struck me was that God is the origin of a love so magnificent and encompassing that even those who have no regard for him share in it. In Christ, the Holy Spirit infuses believers with God's limitless love.
That coincides with my understanding of “common grace,” holding that God’s grace, his unmerited favor, covers all people without discrimination. Think of common grace as any favor experienced in life.
Said Wil Pounds in his 2006 message, “The Common Grace of God,” ‘The purpose of God’s common grace is to cause us to turn to Him and receive even greater grace.”’
Substitute love for grace then consider how much we humans benefit from a life that is amazingly loving even considering all the evil, tragedy, suffering, and misfortune that occurs in life. As troubled as our world can be, it is significantly more kind than unkind, more good than bad, more safe than unsafe - even in the nastiest, most dangerous places where day to day survival is at great risk.
Without God’s loving grace, none of us would survive another second. Best of all, his love and grace are not dependent on our conduct. Even those who openly oppose God or don’t believe he exists are included.
While some Christ followers may be unsettled about God’s love covering those who blatantly disregard or oppose him, that God loves indiscriminately actually provides a more solid foundation for everyone than if based on a standard or conduct or belief that would be subject to human interpretation - a wrinkle most religions suffer from.
Unlike us, God is unchanging, unfailing, unwavering and unflappable. He is reliable when we are not.
So when our plans fail or the image we desire to convey about ourselves falters, God’s love prevails - for our good and his glory. Thank God!
Quite literally, “Livin’ on Love” is a lot more than an endearing expression or hippie chant from the 1960’s. It’s a sustaining reality we can all count on that is not only fully secured by God, it is not the least bit dependent on us.
Wow. We must REALLY matter to God.
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Notes:
1. Link to 13 “Making Room” podcast messages from 5/7 thru 7/30/2017 by Pastor Doug Walker, Grace Chapel Church, Farmington Hills, MI
2. What does “God is love” mean?
3. 10 Bible verses re: The earth is filled with God (who is love)
4. Photo by Mayur Gala on UnSplash