To Fill All Things (5) 

Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith,  1 Timothy 1.5

The lovingkindness of the Lord
The various writers of the book of Psalms struggle to help us understand a most fundamental truth about God:

He loves us more than we know.

David and the other psalmists want us to understand that God’s love brought the world into being and continues to sustain it. By His love God assigns the various creatures to their places and provides for their needs. His love endures forever, reaches as high as the heavens, sustaining and stretching out throughout the earth, bringing good things to every human being, and even taking care of those who despise the Lord and His ways (Matt. 5.43-45).

The term most frequently used to describe this everywhere-present-and-always-at-work love of God is translated as “lovingkindness” or, in some versions, “steadfast love.” Especially Psalm 136, with its antiphonal arrangement of verses, insists that the cosmos is upheld, sustained, and pervaded by the lovingkindness of God. Everywhere we turn, we are confronted by the love of God. So everywhere-present-and-always-at-work is God’s love that we tend to take it for granted: The air we breathe, the light coming into our eyes, the blood in our veins, food on our tables, strength to work, and all the daily blessings and benefits we enjoy.

It would improve our learning to pray without ceasing if we simply took some time out during the day to thank the Lord for the many ways His steadfast love surrounds, sustains, and swarms us at every moment!

Imitate Christ
This is the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Seated at the right hand of the Father and upholding the universe and everything in it by His Word of power, Jesus is filling the cosmos with Himself, with His steadfast love and faithfulness. When the apostle Paul calls us to imitate him as he imitates Christ (1 Cor. 11.1), surely one of the things He wants us to do is work hard at filling the spaces and time of our lives with tokens of the steadfast love of the Lord.

Paul insisted that all Christian instruction should be devoted to teaching us the ways of love. Love is the theme of Scripture (Matt. 22.34-40), the greatest of all Christian virtues (1 Cor. 13.13), the first fruit of the indwelling Spirit of God (Gal. 5.22, 23), and the crowning achievement of a community of believers (Eph. 4.16).

As Jesus fills our souls with His Presence, and we fill the spiritual air with prayers celebrating and drawing on His love, it’s only natural—well, supernatural, really—that the fragrant “overflow” of our lives should take various forms of love, thus refracting the lovingkindness of the Lord that reaches us on every hand.

By focusing on the people in our Personal Mission Fields, we can prepare each day to bring the love of Christ to them in ways specific to their needs and in line with the opportunities presented to us (Eph. 5.15-17).

Filling the spaces of our Personal Mission Fields with love begins in prayer, where we seek the wisdom of God to help us use our time for love, and as we call upon Him to “establish” just the right works of love that will allow us to show Jesus to the people to whom we’re being sent (Ps. 90.12, 16, 17).

But how can we know what love will require of us in any situation?

Consistency, not enormity
Jesus suggested that one way might be to ask yourself, “How would I want someone to love me just now?” As you would like to be loved, reach out to love someone else, and you will find yourself acting in accord with the Scriptural requirements for love (Matt. 7.12).

Think of loving others not in terms of big displays, but, like the lovingkindness of the Lord, in the small, everyday tokens of thoughtfulness, concern, and help that make others’ lives a bit easier. Consistency in loving others is more important than enormity. It’s also more likely to be taken for granted, since people can get used to our being kind to them, calling them by name, offering to help in a project, speaking a word of affirmation or encouragement, listening patiently as they whine and whinge about this, that, or the other, or remembering to pray for them regularly.

We don’t love people because they love us, but because Christ loves us and them, and He is filling their lives with His steadfast love, and using folks like you and me as resources in His world-filling love-project.

We will go a long way toward filling our Personal Mission Fields with the presence of Jesus Christ if we focus on showing His love, in small, everyday ways, to the people we see each day. As we are faithful in these small, daily ways of loving, we refract the lovingkindness of the Lord to the people around us, and we prepare ourselves for the greater challenges of love—such as telling someone the Good News about Jesus and His love—to which the Lord will bring us in His time.

For reflection
1. Do you thank the Lord daily for the small ways people show love to you?

2. How could you use a morning time of prayer to prepare for a day of love (Ps. 90.12, 16, 17)?

3. Not everyone will appreciate the love we show them. But they will experience it. Why does that matter?

Next steps—Transformation: Today, pay attention to the ways others show love to you. Thank them and the Lord each time, and look for ways to practice that love with others.

T. M. Moore

Right now, from His throne in heaven, Jesus is filling all things with Himself. How is He doing that? Order a copy of our book, What in Heaven Is Jesus Doing on Earth? to learn more. Click here for the book or here for the PDF.

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from theNew King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.