Rick Warren's Blog, page 671

Love Covers Your Sin

"Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins." 1 Peter 4:8 (NLT)

The first law for learning how to really love God and other people is that the best use of life is love. There are two more reasons why you need to make learning how to love your life purpose.

First, love compensates for your sin. The Bible says in 1 Peter 4:8, "Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins" (NLT).

The love of Jesus Christ covers your sins, and it also gives you the power to let other people off the hook. You've been forgiven, and you can forgive others.

King David from the Bible was not exactly a perfect guy. In fact, he blew it a lot. He lied. He cheated. He stole another guy's wife. He committed adultery. He even had a guy murdered to cover up his sin!

But when David blew it, he admitted it quickly, and he repented. He didn't always do what was right, but he sought after the Lord and wanted to do what was right. God called David a man after his own heart.

How could God say that about a man like David? Because it's more important for you to love God with all your heart than for you to be perfect. Do you love God with all your heart? Do you love your neighbor as yourself? Doing so will cover a multitude of sins.

Second, love reverberates forever.

You need to learn that what matters right now are relationships. In fact, the Bible says life without love is worthless and wasted: "No matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love" 1 Corinthians 13:3 (MSG).

So why do relationships get the short end of the stick? If we know it's really about love, why don't we have time for the people we love? Because we're busy. We give first-class allegiance to second-class causes, and we start skimming on our relationships.

But nothing can take the place of love. Life is not about achievement or balanced schedules or recognition. It's about love. Don't let busyness cause you to forget that.

Talk It Over

What do you think it means to love God with "all your heart"?

In what ways have your relationships suffered because of busyness?

God's love will cover your sin, but what do you need to repent of so that you can truly seek after God's heart?

Make Love Your Life Purpose

"Love is more important than anything else. It is what ties everything completely together." Colossians 3:14 (CEV)

Do you want to know how to best spend your life? Here it is: The best use of your life is love.

God says you need to make learning how to love your primary objective, your greatest ambition, your life purpose. Why does he say that? There are four reasons why love is more important than anything else. Today we're going to look at the first two.

Love validates your faith.

The reason why God wants you to learn to love is because he wants you to become like him. The Bible says in 1 John 4:20, "If we say we love God, but hate others, we are liars. For we cannot love God, whom we have not seen, if we do not love others, whom we have seen" (TEV). Love validates your faith. It proves you really are a child of God.

Love integrates your life.

There are a lot of things that you can make your dominant life principle. But what you need is something at the center of your life so strong that it won't fall apart when the trials come - when the road ends, the emotional earthquakes hit, and the financial hurricanes stir. When all of the tribulations of life batter you, you better have something at the center of your life that's going to hold you together, or you'll come apart.

The Bible says the only thing strong enough to do that is love - love for God and love for each other. When love becomes the center of your life, it brings everything else into focus.

Colossians 3:14 says, "Love is more important than anything else. It is what ties everything completely together" (CEV).

Talk It Over

What are the ambitions that get in the way of making love your greatest ambition?

How can you make love the center of your life? How can it serve as a stronghold for you?

In what ways do others identify you as a child of God? Is love one of those ways?

Life: a Lesson in Love

"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. The second most important is similar: 'Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.'" Matthew 22:36-39 (LB)

If you want your life to count, you have to focus it. You don't have time for everything, and not everything is of equal value.

Matthew 22:36-39 says, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. The second most important is similar: 'Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself'" (LB).

Jesus said there are two things that are more valuable in life than anything else: loving God and loving each other.

Have you ever wondered why God didn't just take you to Heaven when he created you? Why did he put you on Earth? You're only here for 100 years at the most, and you're going to live for eternity in Heaven or Hell. Why didn't God just take everybody to Heaven?

The Bible is very clear that God put you here on Earth to do two things: to learn to love God and to learn to love other people. Life is not about acquisition, accomplishment, or achievement. It's not about all the things the world tells you it's about. You're not taking your career to Heaven. You're not taking your car to Heaven. You're not taking your house to Heaven. But you are taking your character. You're taking you.

God put you on Earth for 80 to 100 years so you can learn to love him with all your heart and learn to love others. Life is one giant lesson in love.

Talk It Over

What are the things you need to stop focusing on so that you have more time to show love to others?

How are you making the most of your time on Earth? How much time do you spend learning how to love like Christ?

If someone looked at your life, what would he or she say are the most important things to you?

Love Is an Action

"You have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first." Revelation 2:4-5 (ESV)

Love is an action, not just emotion. Love is something you do.

It's easy to love somebody who loves you, isn't it? It takes nothing at all. But real love acts and does the loving thing when people don't deserve it, when they don't respond, or when you don't feel it. Actually, acting in love when you don't feel it is the highest form of love. It's a more mature love when you act loving toward a person who does not respond the same way.

Have you also noticed that it's easier to act your way into a feeling than it is to feel your way into an action? Some of you have been in marriages for a long time, and the truth is, the flame has gone out. The thrill is gone. You're living separate lives in the same house. How do you rekindle that romance? How do you rekindle the feeling of love?

You act your way into a feeling. You may say, "I don't feel like acting loving toward them." So what? If you start acting in love, I guarantee you the feelings will follow - because feelings follow behavior.

In Revelation 2:4-5, Jesus says to the Church, "You have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first" (ESV).�

What Jesus told the Church is the same principle for renewing the love in a marriage or any other relationship. You remember, you repent, and you do the things you did at first. The reason the love went away is you stopped doing the things that created the love in the early days.

God doesn't want you living by your feelings. He wants you living by faith. So you know what he does? Sometimes he lets the feelings go away. Then you have to love by faith and live by faith. When you love somebody and do the loving thing, even when he's not responding and even maybe when he's retaliating, you are loving by faith. That is an action.

Talk It Over

How do you show your love to the people around you through actions?

Who is the unloving person around you who needs to see your love demonstrated to him or her through action?

What "works you did at first" do you need to revive to help grow a relationship?

Choose to Love

"You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him." (Deuteronomy 30:20 NLT)

Today we've bought into this myth that love is uncontrollable, that it just kind of happens to you.

In fact, even the language we use implies that we can't control how we love. We say, "I fell in love" - like it was a ditch! I was just walking along one day and - bam! - I fell in love. I just couldn't help myself. But is that really love?

Attraction and arousal are uncontrollable - no doubt about it. But attraction and arousal are not love. They can lead to love, but they are not love.

Love is a choice.

During a wedding ceremony, a man and a woman stand before each other and say their vows. They say to the other person, "I choose you above everybody else in the world, and I choose you for the rest of my life." They make a public statement of their choice - that's a commitment.

You can't force somebody to fall in love with you, and you can't force him or her to stay in love with you. Why? Because love is a choice. Love cannot be forced. This is true of all relationships, including your relationship with God.

Deuteronomy 30:20 says, "You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him" (NLT). You must choose to love God. God isn't going to force you to love him. You can thumb your nose at God and go a totally different way. You can destroy your life if you want to. God won't force you to love him, because love is a choice.

What will you choose to do?

Talk It Over

Why do you think God made love a choice?

How do you show someone that you have chosen to love him or her? How do you show God that you have chosen to love him?

What about your life shows that you have made a commitment to God to love him?

We Love Because God First Loved Us

"We love because he first loved us." 1 John 4:19 (NIV)

The Bible says in 1 John 4:19, "We love because [God] first loved us" (NIV). God is always first in everything. He takes the initiative. The only reason you can love God or anybody else is because God first loved you. And he showed that love by sending Jesus Christ to Earth to die for you. He showed that love by creating you. He showed that love by giving you everything you have in life. We love because God first loved us.

If you want to learn how to love other people, you've got to first understand and feel how much God loves you. When you feel that unconditional love, you're going to start cutting people a lot of slack. You're not going to be as angry as you've been in the past. You're going to be more patient. You're going to be more forgiving. You're going to be more merciful. You're going to show other people grace.

The reason why you see people who are judgmental, sarcastic, angry, self righteous, and always putting other people down is because they're putting themselves down. They don't feel good about themselves. They don't feel loved. They don't feel forgiven. They don't feel grace. They feel guilty. They feel bad about themselves. And if they feel bad about themselves, they certainly don't want you feeling good about you.

Maybe you're one of those people. Maybe you've been hurt by parents or peers or partners. Maybe you've been abused or misused or rejected or abandoned or betrayed. You've got some scars on your heart.

You cannot give to others what you have not received yourself. Unlovely people are unloved people. Hurt people hurt people. If you're filled with anger and impatience and you don't feel loved, guess what? You're not going to be able to love anybody else. You have to learn how much God loves you and let it heal your heart so his love can flow through you. It is impossible to love others until you really feel loved yourself.

The Bible says, "We know and rely on the love God has for us" (1 John 4:16a). Do you know the love of God? Do you rely on the love of God for you? You will have a hard time loving other people until you have God's love coming through you.

Talk It Over

Would you say that you love others with the love of God? How do you show that love to others?

Why would understanding God's love help you show grace to others?

What hurt from your past is keeping you from accepting God's love and showing it to others?

Trust God for a Second (or Third or Fourth) Chance

"By faith we have been made acceptable to God. And now, because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we live at peace with God." Romans 5:1 (CEV)

If you're like most of us, you could use a second chance to get healthy in 2014. A December 2012 Journal of Clinical Psychology report says the number one New Year's resolution for the year was to lose weight. By the end of the year, only 8 percent of respondents had successfully fulfilled their resolutions - whether they were losing weight, getting organized, cutting debt, or something else.

Even if you've made an ill-fated resolution to get healthy in 2013, 2012, 2011, or every year for the last decade, never forget that Jesus is all about second chances when you stumble. We can be grateful that his mercies are new every morning - and every New Year.

Jesus said, "I didn't come to condemn the world.� I came to save it."� That means God didn't stand behind you and shake his head disapprovingly when you blew your last diet. You don't need to feel ashamed about your past diet failures. God isn't ashamed of you.

Too many people go through life feeling guilty, judged and criticized by God. They have no desire to spend time with the critical god they've imagined in their head whom they're sure is disappointed in them.

If you want to get healthy in 2014, that kind of thinking is counterproductive. To get healthy you need to accept that God loves you completely, totally, and unconditionally. Because Jesus died in your place on the cross, you are completely acceptable to God - no matter how many diets you've blown.

Romans 5:1 says, "By faith we have been made acceptable to God. And now, because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we live at peace with God" (CEV).

God wants to give you his best in 2014 - no matter how many times you've failed in the past. The Bible says you have complete access to God and his power in your life today if know him. You don't have to wait until you get your life together. You get all the amazing benefits of being a child of God today!

I believe your 2014 will be completely and totally transformed - including your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual life - if you become consistently aware of God's unconditional, continuous, and never-ending love for you.

Unconditional love will turn a loser into a winner. You have no idea how many times your heavenly Father has wanted to reach out and grasp you in his arms when you felt like you blew it!

So as you look forward to getting healthy in 2014, internalize the truth that God loves you despite your failures. He longs to walk with you as you try to get healthy this year.

Instead of letting your past failures define 2014 for you; my prayer for you this year is that you'll fully understand God's great love for you. I pray that his love will give you the power to do the unbelievable this year.

Talk It Over

How have you let past failures define your future, particularly in connection to getting healthy?

What makes it difficult to accept the unconditional love of God in your life?

What makes God's unconditional love for you so potentially transforming?

To Get God's Power, Give Him Your Trust

"For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength." Philippians 4:13 (NLT)

A right relationship with Jesus is foundational to every area of your life. Your physical health is no exception.

Through a secure relationship with Jesus, you can grow and change in ways it's impossible to do without one. In truth, we can't accomplish anything having to do with our health without God: "For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength" Philippians 4:13 (NLT).

Getting healthy, like any major change we make in our lives, can seem like an impossible challenge. Of course, it is impossible for those who try to do it on their own! But in our inadequacy, God's strength for the person of faith is made perfectly evident.

That's why it takes faith to maintain your health the way God desires. You'll never be able to do it on your own. You were never intended to be able to! Anything you can do in your own willpower doesn't require faith, and when faith is not required, we're living faithlessly.

When you come to Christ in acknowledgement of your weaknesses, he often turns your greatest weakness into your greatest strength. God loves to turn our greatest weakness into our greatest strength. If you feel you have a weak faith or even no faith, depend on God, and let him turn it into your greatest strength.

But that only happens through God's power. The Bible tells us there's a direct connection between faith and power. The more faith you have in God, the more power and the more blessings you will have in your life.

Jesus illustrated this in Matthew 13, where he went for a visit in his hometown, Nazareth. The Bible says, "Jesus did not do many miracles of power in his hometown because of their lack of faith."

God blesses people who are not afraid to trust him completely. When you give him your trust, God fills you with his power. In the Bible, Abraham is considered the father of faith. It says, "He didn't doubt God's promise out of a lack of faith. Instead, giving honor to God for the promise, he became strong because of faith." Romans 4:20 (GW).

Without God's power in your life, you're just running on your own energy. And God never meant for you to do that. It's like having a laptop that's unplugged; the battery will eventually drain and all the power will be gone. Why would you live like that?

Think of it like this: You've got a small battery in you. You can run through life on your own power, which means you'll be tired all the time.

Or you have access to God's power plant, provided you just plug in and admit you need God's help.

It's really a pretty easy choice.

Talk It Over

When is the last time you attempted something that could only be done by the power of God?� How did you see God work through that situation?

What are some of the differences between getting healthy in your own power and getting healthy through God's power?

What are some warning signs in your own life that you're trying to do something on your own power rather than God's power?

Don't Give Up

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9 (NIV)

Failure is never final. You're never a failure until you quit, and it's always too soon to quit! You don't determine a person's greatness by his talent, his wealth, or his education. You determine a person's greatness by what it takes to discourage him.

So what does it take to discourage you from going after your dream? It may be as simple as a friend or relative or family member telling you, "I don't think that's a good idea."

The Bible says in Galatians 6:9, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." (NIV). You want to know how many times I wanted to resign from Saddleback Church? Just every Monday morning when I think, "God, surely somebody could have done a better job than I did yesterday. This thing is too big for any one person."

God says, "Just keep on keeping on." I may not be real bright sometimes, but I don't know how to quit. I don't know how to give up.

God works in your life according to your faith. The Bible says, "Without faith it's impossible to please God" and "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin" and "According to your faith it will be done unto you." So what are you doing in faith? You need to ask yourself every day when you get up, "God, what can I do today that will require faith?" That's an important question, because that's what's going to please God.

There are a lot of things in your life you don't have control over. You didn't control who your parents were, when you were born, where you were born, or what your race or nationality is. You didn't control what gifts and talents you were given. You didn't decide how you look.

But you do have complete control over how much you choose to believe God. God uses people who expect him to act, who never give up, who take risks in faith, who get his dream and go after it. It's your choice whether you want to be the kind of person God uses to accomplish his purpose.

Talk It Over

What are the things that discourage you and keep you from pursuing your goals?

How do you think God wants you to respond to those circumstances?

What act of faith is God asking you to do today?

It's Time to Redefine Failure

"Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe." Proverbs 29:25 (NIV)

Satan's favorite tool to diminish your faith is the fear of failure. But you cannot serve God and be constantly worried about what other people think. You have to move forward. Proverbs 29:25 says, "Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe." (NIV)

So how do you get rid of the fear of failure?

One way is to redefine failure. What is failure? Failure is not failing to reach your goal. Failure is not having a goal. Failure is not failing to hit your target. Failure is not having a target. Failure is not falling down. Failure is refusing to get back up. You're never a failure until you quit. So if you're attempting something for the glory of God, that's a good thing. Failure is not trying and not accomplishing anything. Failure is failing to try.

Another way to get rid of the fear of failure is to never compare yourself to anybody else. You're always going to find somebody who's doing a better job, and you get discouraged. And, you're always going to find somebody who's not doing as good a job as you are, and you become full of pride. Both of them will mess up your life. Discouragement and pride will keep you from serving God's purpose for your life.

The Bible says in Galatians 6:4, "Each of you must examine your own actions. Then you can be proud of your own accomplishments without comparing yourself to others." (GW)

Did you notice that the Bible says there is a legitimate pride? There's a good kind of pride and there's a bad kind of pride. The bad kind of pride is comparing: "I'm better than so and so!" The good kind of pride is, "God, I'm proud of what you're doing in my family, my business, my life, my walk of faith." That's the good kind of pride.

God hasn't called me to be the best pastor in the world. God has called me to be the best pastor I can possibly be given the gifts, talents, and experiences he gave me. When you get to Heaven, God isn't going to say, "Why weren't you more like so and so?" He's going to say, "Why weren't you who I made you to be?"

Let go of your fear of failure, because anything you're attempting for God in faith is a good thing, regardless of the results.

Talk It Over

How has your fear of what other people think kept you from moving forward in faith?

In what ways are you using your gifts and abilities to work toward your goals?

What failures have kept you from pursuing your goals and dreams? What do you think God wants you to learn from those setbacks?