Final Application – Bobby Bo.
What are the basic, timeless truths in this book?
2.1 God has left room for failure in a believers life.
2.3 God’s love for believers leads to one’s true identity.
3:18 Believers need to treat love as an action and not a word.
4:16 Believers are to love in a way that has a direct reflection of how Christ loved.
4:18 The love of God will cast away all fear.
5:1 Believers are to love everyone.
What am I to believe?
I am to believe that if I truly acknowledge the love that God has for me, I will be able to love others in a way that is honoring towards Him. I am to believe that because of the way that God loves and knows me, I am able to keep my eyes focused on His heart for my situations opposed to my own understandings. It’s a crazy concept you know, God loving us. The creator of the world and of all things desires deep relationship with those in which he created. Out of nothing, He made us something. Out of the filth and dirt that is inside of our sinning hearts, He finds a way to fill it up with love in such a way that we have too much of it and out of that we are able to love others. I am to believe that without the love of God, I am not able to do anything. I am to believe that no matter how much love I think that I have, it will never compare to the amount of love that God has and that all I can do is try, and through that God is so proud of me. That is a pretty overwhelming thought. That through joy, peace, anger frustration, resentment… all of it, God is still able to love me and still sees the potential in me to love in the same way.
Are there attitudes, actions or thought patterns that I need to change?
I need to change the way I love and interact with other people. I don’t think that I am a people person all the time, especially when I get stressed out in which I will reserve myself and not really talk to anybody and if someone talks to me I give off a “stand off-ish” attitude, aka… unloving. In those moments when I am feeling weak or like I am just not getting it, those are the times that I need to be a people person the most because I need to acknowledge that I don’t want to do it alone and I want to let others come into my life and be a part of it rather than away from it. I think that the most loving thing I can do in a moment like that is to let someone in. Aside from that I need to show my love towards others more in a way that shows I genuinely care for that person. I am more of a conversation kind of guy and not much of a small-talk kind of guy, and a lot of times I will just avoid small-talk all together and not talk. I know I care for people and I know I have compassion towards situations but I don’t necessarily know how to feed into it and because of that I tend to back away from it a bit. I need to change an attitude that says I can’t help or there is nothing I can do and change it to one that shows that I am there for that person or that I just truly love this person by the way I interact with them.
What can I learn about my relationship with God, with people?
I can learn that God has a whole lot of love, and that it is something that I will never be able to fully grasp my mind around. I can learn that through the love God has for me, he desires for me to love with everything I can, no matter how insignificant I feel that it is, because it is more than enough for God.
What is the Good News for me?
The Good News is that I am free to love and that God really wants use me in ways to break down walls in peoples live because of the power of love that dwells within me, all I need to do is live it out in a way that is genuine to God.
In view of these truths, what changes should I make in my life?
I need to not reserve myself so much here, it might not seem like I do, but I do a lot. I typically will never ask someone to get lunch or dinner with me because I just want to eat alone and process whatever has been going on that day with myself and a lot of times if people ask me to share a meal a lot of times I don’t go because I just want that time for myself. I need to ask people more often how they are doing… how they are really doing and talk to them about it. I love listening to people when I do, I just need to give myself more chances to do so.
How do I plan to carry out these changes?
I am not going to eat a meal without at least asking people to share it with me. I am going to post this final application on my blog for accountability. I am going to also write a sticky note on my computer saying “how have you shown an act of love towards someone today?
