Word for Wednesday: Love is a River

In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, so ought we to love one another….There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:9-11, 18-19)

On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit…” (John 7:37-39)

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. (Revelation 22:1)

It is true that when we read the Bible or discuss the things of God, particularly virtue, we talk or think about how vastly important love is to the believer. We are to love just as we were loved. We are to love one another, laying down our lives for one another, as Christ laid down His life for us. When I think about love, I ask, “What is it really? How can you describe it? It’s almost too real to describe.” Love: humble submission, faith without fear, the giving that seeks no return, looks at the glass half-full instead of half empty. But these are really what love does; why does love do what it does? What is the nature of love in a word? Then it hit me, Love is constant, when it receives it cannot help but give, it knows no bounds, it is a spring of life from within. But though love comes out of us and reaches other people, it really doesn’t come from us. Here’s how.

Love is like a river!

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing toward an ocean, a lake, a sea or another river.

A river is part of the hydrological cycle. Water within a river is generally collected from precipitation through surface runoff, groundwater recharge, springs, and the release of stored water in natural ice and snowpacks.
-Wikipedia

We are like a river! The source is unseen, supernatural, supplying life-giving water to the earth. A river cannot help but flow and fill up the lakes, seas, oceans, covering 75% of the planet!
The river flows because the spring flows first! We love, because He first loved us!

There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God,
The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.” (Psalm 46:4)

All the rivers run into the sea,
Yet the sea is not full;
To the place from which the rivers come,
There they return again.” (Ecclesiastes 1:7)

I will open rivers in desolate heights,
And fountains in the midst of the valleys;
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
And the dry land springs of water. (Isaiah 41:18)

Don’t we want to tell the world about this great love bestowed upon us by the Father? Don’t we often thank the Lord for this great salvation, undeserved by us? Don’t we often sing of it? We tell each other about it, we might even try to show love toward one another. But to the world? We feel a slight shudder go down our backs when we think about what that might take, don’t we? It would mean getting out of the boat and stepping onto those waves. Father, so often we are afraid. Why do we doubt? Do we trust You? Is our love set upon You? Are we prepared to be a river, to go over rocks, down hills, to make waves? To always be moving forward, not resting until our purpose is complete, to make an ocean? That’s a lot of water! (It is so often that we grow weary as we flow through the rocky places and curves and bends, when we feel like resting. But it is in these places we need to push the hardest.) Father, what if the world builds a dam? How are we going to get through?

It is here that we need to remember that we are not the source of that life, that love that reaches down and saves men; the Lord is. But the river must flow, and carry the water to its destination!

Behold, I will do a new thing,
Now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:19)

So shall He sprinkle many nations.
Kings shall shut their mouths at Him;
For what had not been told them they shall see,
And what they had not heard they shall consider.” (Isaiah 52:15)

How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:
“ How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,
Who bring glad tidings of good things!” (Romans 10:14-15)

Father, teach us to love, that we may be a river! As we thank You for this glorious gift of love by which we are accepted unto You, we also thank You for giving us the strength and power to shine Your love to the world, to press on when we feel the most like quitting. Jesus, we remember that the excellence of the power is of You, not of us. We pray that the world would see You, that those who have never been told shall hear. Lord, give us beautiful feet!

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