As I pray through Paul’s layered prayers for the Philippian church, I’m again arrested by the affections of Christ in chapter 1:8.
Paul’s longing there suggests he’s put his own affections on the back burner in order to see that the primary relationship has it’s free course in lives. This idea may prove harder to live than it seems, but more on that another time.
This verse reminds us that the Lord really does have feelings and thoughts toward us, that move Him to action. He has a greater and better vision for you and I than we can ever personally scrape together. Our paltry sense of being is as nothing when measured by His heart and mind.
But, we all need people in our lives to believe for us, on His behalf, past the threshold of our own blindness into this glorious and liberating freedom.
What would our lives reflect if we had the courage to hold ONLY Christ’s affections,ALWAYS Christ’s affections and FULLY Christ’s affections for the loved ones He’s connected to us.
Frankly, I don’t know the personal cost but I do know we would be a church that has rarely been glimpsed on earth. A Body of Christ that showed His fullness of glory to a lost and broken world.
May the Lord Himself, cause our love to increase and abound towards one another, until that day our heart wakes to realise that His love in us has fully moved in and taken over our own affections.