love languages of God ...

I read this book with tears welling up in my eyes. I was discovering for the first time how I could truly love God back! I have known my love language was Words of Affirmation for many years. Plus, I was overjoyed when I found out my favorite Bible character’s (King David) love language was the same as my own! It’s like discovering new respect for an old love.

I know of someone whose love language is touch and his favorite Bible character is Saul/Paul. I struggle with liking Paul so it was hard for me to understand until now. Paul’s love language is touch and it has given me more respect for Paul and for this person. Maybe it is awe of how God works our love language in our lives. More tears!

I have aggressively been working my words out here on my blog and even in my prayer life. I have used Scripture to help my soul rest. Amazing how I have fallen deeper and deeper in love with my God. My heart bubbles up a joy that can be seen on my face. It isn’t such a struggle anymore. I still have and will have major hurdles in my journey, but my feet feel light and my mind feels healthy. Much easier to love others when I am head over heels in love with the Great Shephard.

Why do some people claim to experience God’s love very deeply, while others feels so distant from God that they are unsure God even exists?

Love is not a solo experience. Love requires both a lover and a responder.

If God is a divine lover, why do not all of His creatures feel His love?

The tragedy is that people who choose not to love are never happy people. Their lack of love hurts not only the other person, but it atrophies their own souls. People who refuse to love live on the edge of desperation.

The craving for love is our deepest emotional need whether we are children or adults. If we feel loved by the significant people in our lives, the world looks bright, and we are free to develop our interests and make a positive contribution in the world. But if our love tank is empty and we do not feel loved by the significant people in our lives, then the world begins to look dark and this darkness will be reflected in our behavior.

The opposite of connection is abandonment. The opposite of acceptance is rejection, and the opposite of nurture is abuse – physical, verbal, mental.

It is my premise that the love languages observed in human relationships are a reflection of Divine Love. If man is indeed made in the image of God, then we would expect to find all 5 love languages express in the character and nature of God. It is also my premise that God speaks all 5 love languages fluently and that people tend to be attracted to God most deeply when they sense that God is speaking their primary love language.

I realized that not only does God speak our primary love language to show His Love to us, but we speak our primary love language in showing our love to God.

‘’I have learned that God is love, and love wants to be loved. That is why He made us with His Attributes, and so gave us the power to love and to hate, the power to choose between good and evil and say ‘I will or I will not.’ .. So He breathed into man the breath of life, and man became a living soul. I believe … that God wanted a creature so like Himself that He could always be in fellowship with man.’’ – R.G. LeTourneau

Words of Affirmation
*All of the Words from God affirm man’s worth
*From the beginning to end, the Bible pictures a loving God who declares His Love by speaking words of truth, comfort, and redemption.
*ie:
Martin Luther – ‘’A Mighty Fortress is Our God’’
King David – primary vehicle of expressing his love to God was words of praise, thanksgiving, and adoration. David saw all of God’s Words – law, ordinances, commandments, precepts, testimonies, statutes, and judgments – as being expression of who God is. He took them as ultimate truth, as certain as God Himself. He based his life on the words of God. As best we can determine, David wrote 73 of the Psalms found in the Bible. Many of them are expressions of praise and thanksgiving to God. His words are some of the most emotional literature in the Bible. David clearly expressed his devotion to God through words of affirmation.

Quality Time
*The idea that the Eternal God desires to spend quality time with His creatures is one of the unique aspects of the Christian faith. The gods who have been created by the ingenuity of man’s mind have always been gods who are far removed from man’s daily life.

*ie:
Jesus did not attempt to make His ministry as board as possible but rather as deep as possible. He wanted these 12 (disciples) to experience His Love at the deepest possible level.

*OT scriptures picture God as spending quality time with Adam and Eve. In the cool of the evening, they walked and talked together in the Garden of Eden. It was only after the Fall that Adam and Eve hid themselves from God, knowing they had violated His Love.

*George Mueller (should read his journals)
History is full of individuals whose primary love language was quality time and who expressed their love to God by spending what to others would have been inordinate amounts of time in prayer, Scripture reading, meditation, and undistracted attention on God.

For George, quality time with God was the center of his life. It was on these occasions that he sensed deeply the presence and peace of God without this quality time, he experienced a sense of distance between God and himself.

When one’s primary love language is quality time, uninterrupted times of communication with God are not difficult but joyous, not burdensome but burden lifting.

*C. Austin Miles – ‘I Come to the Garden Alone’

Gifts
*The theme of God as the Giver of Gifts run deeply through the channels of Hebrew and Christian history. To these individuals for whom gift-giving is the primary love language, this aspect of God’s nature has been extremely compelling.

*The message of Jesus is clear. One of the ways of expressing our love to God is by giving gifts to those who need them. – I never feel more joy than when I am giving to others. I feel like this is why God has given to me, and it is the way I can express my love to Him.

*John 3:16

*’’Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, Who does not change like shifting shadows.’’

*The word ‘gift’ come from the Greek word ‘charis,’ which means ‘unmerited favor.’ God’s gifts are never given because we deserve them; they are given as expressions of His Love for us. Thus, our gifts to others are not based upon the person’s performance or what the individual has done for us, but rather flow form our love for the person.

Acts of Service
*The perception of God as the One who acts was so central to Jewish thought that one of the names they attributed to God was Elohim, the All Powerful One.

*Mother Teresa – (for her, serving people was loving God)
‘’ … we should NOT serve the poor like they were Jesus; we should serve the poor because they ARE Jesus. … To me, Jesus is the Life I want to live, the Light I want to reflect, the Way to the Father, the Love I want to express, the Joy I want to share, the Peace I want to sow around me.’’

*Jesus
-died for us
-preparing a place for us
-used His acts of service as evidence of the truthfulness of His claims

*For all who examine the life of Jesus, He becomes a fork in the road of Life. To those who choose the path of submission – who will bow the knee, submit the heart, and arise to walk humbly as His servants, many will testify that what ultimately won their hearts was His Love expressed by miraculous acts of service and His sacrificial, voluntary death to pay the penalty for their sins.

Physical Touch
*relatively sure that those who wept had experienced the love of God most deeply by a conscious awareness of the presence of the Living God, He touched them and they felt His warm embrace. Feeling deeply loved by God, they reciprocated with … flowing tears.

*ie:
God wrestling with Jacob
Moses’ radiant face when God gave him the 10 Commandments
Jesus’ healing
Saul/Paul
-his conversion
-will see him beaten, and often threatened by death, nothing dampened the spirit of this man who had been touched by God

*they will work in hospitals, giving baths, and wiping fevered brows –in rescue missions, kneeling beside the homeless with an arm draped around the shoulder of a needy person –will serve as greeters.

Q’s
*The most natural way for you to experience and express love towards God is by speaking your primary language.
1) How do I most often express my love to God?
2) What do I most often complain to God about?
3) What do I request of God most often?

New Dialects of Love
*variety stimulates the mind .. It is easier to keep the mind active if you change the routine.

Ideas:
WORDS –
*thanksgiving *declare His Attributes *praise *giving blessing & honor *blogging *journaling *prayer

QT –
*Bible study *walking & praying

GIFTS –
*$$$ *supplying physical needs *giving encouraging words *repeating God’s words *prayer *food *giving of your craft

SERVICE –
*cooking *building *maintenance

TOUCH –
*prayer with touch *reading the Bible with touch *hugs (in Senior Centers, Homeless Shelters, Abuse Refuge, Hospitals, Orphan or Baby wards etc)

When Love Seems Distant
*1st, we are most likely to rebel against the discipline of God when our spiritual love tank is empty. If we do not feel God’s love, then His discipline may seem to be extremely harsh. 2nd, when God’s method of discipline relates directly to our primary love language, it strikes us as the deepest possible level.

*Righteousness & Peace must never be separated.

*Peace – ‘to be at one with’ is at the heart of man’s desire

*In Scripture, healing is never based on man’s power to believe but rest solidly in the hands of the Sovereign God who chooses to heal or not to heal, always choosing for our good and the good of others.

When Love Prevails
*Justice is love built into structures

*To love is to seek the well-being of another. Because man is mad in the image of God & God’s nature is characterized by love, something in the heart of a person will say, yes to love.

*We come to God as individuals, but once the God-Connection is made, He places us into His Family. For the rest of our lives and throughout eternity, we are never again alone. We belong to each other.

*Expressing love using your primary love language will come easy for you. Learning to speak the other four love languages may take time and effort. However, we must remember that we are simple channels of His Love. ‘’God has poured out His Love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.’’
fr: The Love Languages of God by Gary Chapman

I do feel more at one with God and with myself. I have a deep desire to learn other’s love languages and learn to speak them more fluently. Super excited here. It is like having a new pair of specs. Everything is more clear and bright.