All you need is LOVE!

Do you remember that old Beatles song, “All you need is LOVE?”  That song has been rolling around in my head for over a week now. Since Tuesday was Valentine’s Day, it is the perfect time to write a blog about LOVE.

For me, February is the “LOVE” month. Even though I hate the weather it brings, I love all the Valentine’s Day decorations. As I pack up my snowflakes and bring out my pink and red hearts, I realize, I am in love with love. Being surrounded by all this love just reminds me of the amazing love God has for us. Maybe that is why I love it so much.

The Bible says “God is love.” All God can be is love. The reason we can even love ourselves, and each other is because God first loved us. In fact, 1 John 3:1 reads, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!”

Hanging in my bathroom is a wooden sign that reads, “All you need is LOVE.” It occurred to me that if God is love and “All you need is love,” then all I really need is God! This seems so simple. Yet, I complicate it over and over again. Once I understand God is love, that God first loved me and created me out of that love, then I can begin to love those around me. My love for others flows out of the love God has for me. Once I understand this, everything else falls into place.

“God is LOVE.”

There is a lesson in here for us, especially if you struggle with your relationships with other people.

My family can always tell if I have not been getting my time in with God. Quickly, I fall back into my old bad habits and ugly behaviors. My attitude will tell on me in a heartbeat.

It isn’t that God needs me. I need God. Spending time in prayer with God, reading my Bible and reflecting on scripture keeps me connected to God. That connection cultivates my relationship with God. You cannot have a relationship with someone if you don’t spend any time with them. And I have to be careful, because if I am doing all the talking, I am not doing any listening. Listening is critical to any relationship. Last week, I wrote a blog on “Are you listening?” Check it out when you get a chance.

Talking balanced with listening is called communication. Communication cultivates relationship. And relationship is where love is realized.

The next time you are struggling in any relationship, pause and remember, “All you need is love.” That love you need is your first love; your relationship with God.

How is that relationship? Are you spending time with God? Are you balancing that conversation with listening?

The relationship we have with God and the realization of that love puts every other relationship in order. God is not a God of chaos or confusion. God is a God of order, peace and love.

Our relationship with others flows from our relationship with God. 

1 John 4:7-12 says;

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ^…11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”

God has great BIG love for us. Spending time with God is where our relationship is developed and love is realized. Be amazed as that love grows within you, and flows from you into every other relationship you have, making those relationships even better. God is so good.

Let us pray;

Oh God of the Greatest Love, help us to understand this love. Thank you that You first loved us. Teach us how to love one another as You have commanded us. May we love like You love us. In Jesus’ name, Amen. 

P.S. Leave me a comment below because I love hearing from you. Forward this message to a friend who might need a little encouragement today. Post on Facebook and tag me in it. Until next time, let’s fill the world with all this love! -M