Increasing Love
1 Thessalonians 3:12 “May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.” I've been going through 1 Thessalonians this week, and when I came across this verse the word 'increase' popped out at me. Why so? It is a reminder to me that for us to love is not a discrete on/off function. To love someone isn't simply a yes or no action. As people we are inherently imperfect, and the sin in us creeps into the way we show love to others. We cannot love everyone with the Father's unconditional expression. We cannot love everyone in the same marvellous, selfless and pure way that God loves. However, as we grow in our relationship with Him, and as we become more receptive to God revealing His love to us - deep in our hearts in the clichest yet truest of ways, we feel the love of the Lord gently flow, the Father's love "increasing" in us. And we are then able to express love in a purer, more G...