Agapē

Your love is the fullness of Your person, a sum of all Your thoughts and ways.

Your love is the breath in my lungs, the wind in my hair.

Your love is the blood in my veins, the red stains upon Calvary's tree.

Your love is the warmth in my heart, the fire that kindles a resounding flame of praise.

Your love is patient as I search for answers that were never mine for striving.

Your love is kind as I fall seven times, lifting me seventy times seven more.

Your love is generous in filling my cup each time I too quickly drain its reserve.

Your love is the quiet flicker of joy, the tender thrill of hope, in the middle of passing storms.

Your love is the humble washing of my feet cracked and muddied by traversing.

Your love is the honoring of a thousand promises amidst the making of a thousand more.

Your love is the selfless act of turning a cheek that is continuously spat upon.

Your love is the denial of wrath in response to disobedience.

Your love is the pure blank slate that so easily forgets my offenses.

Your love is the Teacher of truth whose words quicken the soul to rejoicing.

Your love is the safeguarding of my troubled heart from perishing in the darkness.

Your love is the trust of a Father in His girl - the trust returned as she holds Your hand and baby-steps.

Your love is the promised hope of greater things to come in each passing day.

Your love is the steadfast perseverance through weeks of my clutching onto borrowed hurt.

I give thanks to the Lord - love Himself.

For He alone is good.

He is faithful and endures forever.

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Biblical Context

Agapē is one of the four Greek words representing love. This form of love is the highest we can experience and give - a sacrificial love of denying oneself for the well-being of others. This is the kind of love exhibited by the Father sending His Son to die for a lost and sinful people in order that they might be restored to oneness with their Beloved.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." ~1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

"Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever." ~Psalm 106:1

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." ~1 John 4:8

God has been slowly and faithfully re-defining my concept of love over the past few months. What it means, how to walk in it, and how to open my heart to receiving it in the fullness of what I was designed to experience. His love is not reserved for the ones who have it all together now - if so, it wouldn't be called patient. His love is not unattainable or hidden from our view - then it wouldn't be deemed kind. His love is all the perfection of 1 Corinthians 13 and then some. He, in all His splendor, is the full picture of true and everlasting love. And that is the love we have the good gift of receiving for all of eternity, by the blood of the Lamb that was slain for our transgressions.