Evidence of belief...love

Time for tea and some musing.  I thought maybe a picture of a tea table might help us take a deep breath and a little time out. Enjoy...

Funny how life goes...
   It is February 1...the month of Hallmark's "love"
        And in a few days I get to talk about some verses in I John. ....
             A book about fellowship with God,
                  A book about fellowship with one another.
A book about how we know we belong to HIM...
    Because we love one another.

So I've been thinking how I see God loving our one anothers through His own children....

   You pray....the Spirit enables us to pray for each other--for good things, for hard things, for growth, for peace, for healing, for fun things, for grace, for love for our one anothers.
 
   You listen....God enables us to listen well...to hear the pain, the heartache, the silent prayer requests, we listen for the joy to be shared, for the increased faith, the increased trust and then He helps us affirm each other.

   You encourage....at the Spirit's nudging, we say words that uplift, we write words that arrive at the perfect time...when needed, the corners of our lips turn up showing our sisters that things are all right in the world because God is on the throne.

    You do...."For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

And here I want to camp for a little while.

When hard things happen to others, children of God or not, we wonder, we question, and sometimes we are stunned. But God in his grace uses those times in many, many people's lives to grow them as they reach out to help, as they sacrifice time, money, energy to help.

They learn to do things they never thought possible, to give like they never thought they could, and they find the strength and energy to do what seemed impossible. They find words to say, that they didn't know were in them and they find tears to shed and love to give that they didn't know was in them.

They learn that God is good, and faithful, and true. They learn that his ways are perfect bringing Him glory and honor and praise as he works everything out for our good.

And so we who see these actions of loving one another in our lives...we know we abide in God and God in us.  What a wonderful promise.