http://bible.com/events/48704984
Regret Prevention Part 2: I Would Have Loved More Deeply
There is hope on the other side of our regret!
We are focusing on avoiding one of the most common regrets people report as they near the end of life: I would have loved more deeply.-We are exploring the importance of love as the guiding focus of life – loving God and loving people.-You’ll find that love is the great antidote to regret.
Matthew 22:34-40NIV
34Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.35One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:36“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”37Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’38This is the first and greatest commandment.39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Greek word for love:agapaō– means to love dearly, to welcome unconditionally.
Point 1: We don’t know how dearly we are loved.
If you want to know God and if you want the world to know him, you will have to saturate in this love. It may seem uncomfortably selfish at times to bathe in the love of God so thoroughly and personally, but it’s the only way you can become the vessel of love he is creating you to be. You will be able to love others only to the extent that you experience his love for yourself. You will forgive other only to the extent that you have experienced forgiveness yourself. You will bless others only to the extent you have understood blessings in your own life. Your capacity to love depends entirely on your capacity to receive it. It will shape your life more than any other force.” -Chris Tiegreen
Point 2: We make love about our feelings but really love is defined by our actions.
1 Corinthians 13:3-8NIV
3If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
1 Corinthians 13:13NIV
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
•Greek word for bear:steg’-o: to roof over, i.e. (figuratively) to cover with silence (endure patiently) — (for-)bear, suffer.
Love protects. Itbears; it does notbare.
Point 3: We don’t give love the final word.
Trust God today and take the next step to prevent any further regret.