The Language of Love

Wednesday Wanderings with Dr. Sherri is a time we set aside to wander in the Presence of Jesus and ponder His truths. When you are ready, prepare your mind, body, and soul to have a transformational conversation with Jesus.

Watch the Wednesday Wanderings Welcome for this week.

Now  that we have cleared our minds of the clutter, we can wander on the journey of exploring the language of love.

PREPARATION: 

In our last Wandering we examined talking and hearing.  This week we will listen in on the psalmist conversation of adoration and investigate the languages of love.  When you are ready, you may begin the dialogue with Jesus by stating:

“Jesus, I invite you to help me to wander into your Presence where your everlasting and reckless love can influence me. Illuminate my spiritual senses to encounter you. Prepare my heart to focus my attention on loving you with my whole being.

PROMISE: Love is a demonstrated and expressed language between lovers. In Matthew 22: 37 Jesus commands us to convey our love to the lover of our soul, holistically. He states, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (New International Version). Our devotion to God is considered the first commandment. We are instructed to withhold not one ounce of affection and to lavish God with a cumulative love of our heart, mind,and soul. The song writer is living out this commandment and transparently shares his adoration to Jesus.

PSALM:  My Jesus I love Thee was originally a devotion poem written by William Ralph Featherston around 1864. In this poem, Featherston shares his love language of affirmation in his transformational conversation with Jesus.

Chorus:
Lord Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine;
For Thee all the pleasures of sin I resign;
My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou,
If ever I loved Thee, Lord Jesus, ’tis now.

Encounters with Jesus grow like roots within the soil of our heart, mind, and soul. When we spend time with Jesus the seeds of our will, understanding, and affections bloom into an anthem of adoration. As each day passes, our soul has an unction to obey the commandment of Matthew 22:37 to love Jesus MORE with all passion, prayer, and intelligence. This is evidenced when our worship and praise grows into a field of loving devotion.

PARABLE: The psalmist uses the love language of affirmation to declare his love for Jesus. The word NOW jumps out of the lyrics in real time.  Notice that the proclamation of the writer’s love comes after the pronouncement that there is a personal covenant love with Jesus (I know Thou art mine) and after a promulgation of the characteristics of the love Jesus has committed to displaying (gracious, redemptive, and saving love). What makes the love that the writer has so present and profound? I don’t know the answer to this question but I do empathize with an intensified love that is occurring NOW. 

Time is a stimulant in the language of love.  The more you experience time with Jesus and the more you come to understand and receive His endless love, the more your heart responds and reciprocates the love. After graciously being redeemed from a two-year post-traumatic stress disorder battle, now more than ever I understand the ever-present healing love of Jesus. The love language I speak in response to the love of Jesus is now different.

Have you considered that love is a language? Gary Chapman describes that God speaks all Five Love Languages fluently. 

The Five Love Languages are:

1. Words of Affirmation (Hebrews 13:15 communicate love through praise and thanksgiving)
2. Quality time (Deuteronomy 17:18-19  communicates love by spending time in God’s word and with God)
3. Receiving gifts (Romans 12:1 communicates love by giving ourselves to God)
4. Acts of service (Matthew 25:31-40 communicates love by loving and serving others)
5. Touching (Mark 10:13-16 communicates love through physical touch and acceptance of others)

Do you know your primary love language? If not, you may take the 5 Love langauge quiz to learn your primary love language. Most likely the love language you communicate in with people is the same love language you will choose to communicate with God. The song writer reveals that his primary love languages through the lyrics indicating that he was spent quality time with Jesus and his response was to affirm his love for Jesus.

PONDER and WANDER:

Ponder the question: What love language do you think Jesus speaks? Jesus also speaks every love language and is an interpreter and translator of our love language. He understands every word, thought, and emotion behind each act of love. He individualizes His love language to each believer. As He speaks to us we experience the unconditional, gracious, redeeming, and saving love of Jesus and it provokes a response within us to express our language of love to Christ. Each time we wander in the Presence of Jesus and encounter His love, we become more fluent in our love languages.

This week our wandering will assist us in growing our emotional relationship with Jesus by strengthening our expression of love in the areas of quality time and affirmation.

Like William Featherston, you may chose to set aside some quality time to write a devotional poem affirming your love to Jesus. If you choose to write your poem, keep in mind that it is your personal expression and is not confined by length, rhyming, or any other myths you have about poetry.

When you are ready, you may begin by taking a moment to breath in and out inviting the Holy Spirit to activate your spiritual senses. Next allow the Holy Spirit to bring to your mind what words will best express your adoration for Jesus based on your relationship with him in time.  Consider your love affair with Jesus in:

• The Past
• The Present
• The Future

When you are ready, let the Holy Spirit guide your pen as you write a devotional poem of adoration to Jesus expressing your love to Him for the gracious love He has given you in the past, for the redeeming love He is giving you in the present, and for the saving love he will give you in the future.

If you prefer technology over the traditional method of paper and pen, you may choose to contemplate expressing your poem in emojis. When you are ready, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, ponder what emojis represent your relationship with Jesus in the past, present, and future. Now select the emoji’s and craft a love text to Jesus.

PRAYER: My Jesus how I love THEE! Let me count the ways. I love thee with my affection. It exceeds that which I have for any other. I love thee to the point of exhaustion. My whole self is spent in my love for thee. I crave thee. Refresh the cravings of my mind, body, and soul with your everlasting and ever-present love. I love thee in other tongues. Help me to seek opportunities to diversify my language of love. I love thee with everything. You are my everything and my everything is YOU! In the name of Jesus who is the Lover of my soul I pray, Amen.  

PRAISE: Now that you have emptied your mind of the clutter and wandered with Jesus, take a closing moment to offer God your gratitude. Let the work of your wandering fill you with the love of Jesus and utter a word of thanks in the love language of affirmation.

Then take the mindfulness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes of wandering into the next ones and beyond.

Until next time, be Resonant.

Image attributions:
Love Jesus with all: Google images
Love blooms: Google images
Love is a language: Google images
Love letter: Belovedwomen.org
Love Emojis: Pixabay