1 John 4:10-12
"This is real love—not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and His Love is brought to full expression in us." [Emphasis added.]
Doves are one of those rare animal species that are monogamous and mate for life. A huge contributing factor to this is that they are hardwired with amazingly keen eyesight to block out others, focus on their mate and see their mate through eyes of love. Theirs is a covenant relationship, if you will. Funny enough doves can also recognize and differentiate humans, as well as recognize themselves in a mirror. As such, these excellent navigators, often used in warfare, always find their way home. So, as I was pondering this ripe information that could easily produce a multitude of sermons to preach; as it applied to Christians I encountered this week, I was left with one big thought. If Believers are in a Covenant relationship with God and the Church of Believers is considered the Bride of Christ, are we not therefore looked upon by God with dove's eyes and find our forever home in Him? Meaning, He loves us madly, focuses on us specifically and sees us individually as His beloved and nothing can separate us from this Love of a Father waiting with open arms for His children to receive Christ, return home and see themselves as He sees them.
So, it saddens me when I witness someone who does not see themselves the way God sees them, talks down to or about themselves or like the Ephesians in Revelation 2:4, loses sight of God as their first Love [agape] and winds up wondering away from their home in Him. Biblical agape love is the highest, noblest and most devoted kind of love. It is a love of choice and an intentional will that is humbly lavished, without regard for superficial appearance, emotional attraction or sentimental relationship. Not seeing yourself as God sees you goes beyond having a bad hair day. This is when low self-esteem, low self-worth or even body dysmorphia bind up a person to the point that not only do they see themselves wrongly, they view God wrongly. They look in the mirror and see not a creation of God, but someone not worth loving by God, by themselves or by others. I once read that if the words we say to or thought about ourselves were read back to us they could be classified as abusive. Simply friends, if you can't believe that God cherishes and delights in you with unyielding, never-ending and unconditional Love, then it is extremely difficult to look at yourself as a worthy precious saint of God who is on this earth at this very time for a specific purpose and plan that only you can accomplish. Besides which, as I always say, God is in the habit of making masterpieces, not trash!
If this is the case, then we are encouraged to be mindful of viewing ourselves the way God sees us. This happens when gaze upon God rightly and remember our forever home lies in Him. Having “eyes like doves” epitomizes how one party is fully focused on their significant other - having no ability nor interest to look at another with the same love. We should have dove's eyes for God because He has dove's eyes for us! Definition: FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS on Him!!! No other gods before Him, because this agape Love God has for His children is the Love which the Holy Spirit fills up in the heart of the yielded [i.e. submitted] believer. Today make a covenant with your eyes to fix them only on the Lord with agape love, keep Him first and in doing so see yourself as the masterpiece you are who finds their home in God. When God remains first in our hearts [this is our vertical relationship], we see ourselves better and every [horizontal] relationship, be it marriage, friendship or children, etc. is made better.
Takeaways for you to remember:
#1 Believers are in a Covenant relationship with God.
#2 God comes first; Look upon God with agape love.
#3 See yourself how God sees you, with love.
Yours in Christ!
Dr. Quahana
Want to enjoy some of the Scriptures inspiring this entry?
[All Scripture listed is NLT version unless otherwise noted.]
References
1. NAS Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible with Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries. The Lockman Foundation. 1998.
2. Precept, Austin. "Greek Word Study: Agape," preceptaustin.org. Accessed 6 February 2024.
3. Er, Elina. "Dove's Eyes", the-encounter.org. Accessed 6 February 2024.
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