The Beginning of Love

Spiritual growth in Christ is beautiful because through it the heart of a growing person is cleansed and refined. No matter how difficult the trials and spiritual darkness that enter a believer’s life may seem, in the end all these things work together for good.

The Lord knows perfectly what kind of vessel He desires to shape from pliable clay. If the clay does not resist, the Great Master will create something beautiful that will bring joy to His heart.

The narrow way the Lord has chosen for His children is so narrow that everyone who longs to walk it must walk alone. The joyful thing is that Jesus has already traveled this path and knows everything that awaits me.

Love is the goal of my journey and spiritual growth—a goal I must certainly reach and in which I must remain.

Life in love is an enormous responsibility before Heaven, which has entrusted you with such a great blessing so that, through this condition of mind and soul, you may reveal to the entire world around you the beauty of God’s character in your life—the life of a sinful human being. This is how the Lord has chosen to glorify His name and overcome this world. It is His plan that we love one another and abide in His love.

Knowledge of all the stages of spiritual growth helps me understand the events taking place in my life, but it does not remove trials of faith from it. The fire of God’s trials is very hot, and it refines all the inner foundations of my thinking. After passing through this fire, I leave behind many things that slowed or stopped my spiritual growth. Yet in the memory of those close to me, I may remain the same person they knew from the beginning. Such stereotypes are very difficult to remove from the minds of those who do not wish to grow and who evaluate everyone according to old memories. Through their recollections and subjective judgments, these people can undermine the reputation of anyone they have known for a very long time.

Love changes my attitude toward people, but those people remain the same and begin to watch me, especially when I tell them about my love. At first, I am very afraid to speak of love to those whom God calls me to love. But I take this step and immediately run to Jesus to receive this love, because I understand that my human nature is incapable of such a constant relationship.

Strange as it may seem, I see the victory of this very love within me. It does not allow my inborn selfishness to become the chief motive of my behavior. I notice that I do many things out of love for people, which at first greatly surprises me. In this I see a special victory over myself. All my feelings and thoughts begin to submit to the new law of love and adapt themselves to it. This is not my human effort, but something that comes from outside me and changes my mind.

I do not suddenly become a loving person immediately or in a single day. But the very first conscious victory of love in my life reveals to me a new meaning in the great conflict with sin. I clearly see God’s power in this work. There are no suitable words to describe all these new processes in my mind, but they radically change me from within. I begin to understand that this is precisely what the Lord desires to see in each of His children.

My friendliness acquires an entirely different power when I begin to invest in it all the love I receive from the Savior. I long so deeply to be accepted in this love—to be appreciated and to have others rejoice with me that I love from a pure heart, freely and without cause. But I notice that very few people understand me, and I run with my questions to Christ. He shows me His wounded hands and comforts me with the assurance that He knows perfectly what love encounters.

As I grow in love, the Lord reveals a great mystery to me and shows me the cross of Calvary, making me understand that the empty place upon this cross is the throne of the overcomer.

At first I do not greatly desire to accept such a victory and such a reward. But when I continually meet the hostility of the world and a completely different spirit in response to my love, I understand that the world has devised nothing better for loving people. Since the time of Christ, nothing has changed in the base human nature that remains beyond God’s influence. The enemy of the soul has advanced in his deceptions during these two thousand years and knows how to approach each of us.

It is sometimes very painful for me to see the waves of God’s love break against the unyielding cliffs of human selfishness. Yet I can no longer relate differently to those around me, and I continue to love them from a pure heart, choosing this very attitude.

Love leaves no special outward mark upon me that the world can recognize as the sign of a loving person. It cannot be seen with the naked eye, yet its influence remains constant. Anyone who has a relationship with a loving friend will certainly experience the influence of this love, and something must be done with it. God draws the friend’s soul toward love in return, while the enemy of the soul seeks to destroy this attraction through inborn selfishness, instilling unbelief and recalling every betrayal and disappointment from earlier relationships.

I continue to love and become very bold in this approach to people. Their objections and unbelief no longer trouble me. I am prepared for indifference in response to my convincing actions. As I perform deeds of love and act from love, I expect neither praise nor gratitude, because what interests me most is the opinion of God, Who moves me to relate to people in precisely this way.

The way of love is the most beautiful way, yet at the same time this spiritual joy is mingled with sorrow over what is happening around you when you are neither understood nor accepted.

In my personal experience, I have noticed this characteristic: when love overflows the heart, it is very difficult for me not to speak or write about it or somehow hide it within myself. It seeks a way out and does not rest until it declares itself in some way or makes known that it exists and is genuine. This causes me serious problems, making me appear in the eyes of others as some strange person whose intentions no one can understand.

But we are dealing with a good Lord, Who knows how to gladden the heart of a loving person by sending him those who can love in return and answer love with love. It is so beautiful to have friends like these, with whom we can openly exchange God’s blessings without fearing that we will have to keep some of the abundance of God’s love within ourselves. We gladly enrich one another and value such relationships above pearls and pure earthly gold.

Previously, at every stage of my faith, it seemed to me that I possessed love and could abide in it whenever I wished. To some extent, I received this blessing for fleeting victories, but my mind was not permeated with love, and inner selfishness very quickly destroyed all my victories. When the Lord had brought me to a certain level of growth, He decided to reveal to me from within the full power and beauty of His love. I now understand that it was impossible for me to love in the past as I do now with a renewed mind, because my heart was overflowing with every kind of rubbish that I carried with me through all the stages of faith.

1. Please read Romans 8:28; 12:9–10; 13:10; 1 Corinthians 2:9; Galatians 5:6; Ephesians 3:19; 4:2; Colossians 3:14; 1 Thessalonians 3:12; 1 Peter 1:7; 4:8.

2. What other Bible verses came to your mind?

3. What did you understand?

4. Do I believe that even the most difficult trials work together for my good?

5. Do you allow the Lord to shape your character as He desires?

6. Am I ready to walk the narrow way even if I must walk it alone?

7. To what extent does your love depend on the way other people treat you?

8. How can I understand what moves me more often: love or personal gain?

9. Can the Lord destroy every root of selfishness within me?

10. How do I respond to indifference toward my love?

11. How strongly do the opinions of others influence my actions?

12. Am I able to see the inner pain and need behind people’s actions?

13. How do you understand the idea that the cross of Calvary is the reward for my love?

14. If those around me judged Christ only by my life, would they see His love within me?