God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Romans 5:5 (ESV)

 

We are Christians not just because we believe in God, but also because we experience Him. We have seen the love of the Father in the gift of His only Son to us. We have witnessed the love of the Son in the sacrifice of His life on the cross for us. We have experienced the love of the Holy Spirit as He animates God's love in us.

As we come to know and love God more deeply, we will come to understand the intricate and intriguing love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All three Person loves and trusts each other completely, and this life and love of the Trinity is the foundation for our life, faith and ministry.

The "emptying" of God's love into us fills us with God Himself, transforming us into living vessels of love, offering to others what has been freely bestowed upon us by God. When we love others, we show that God and His life of eternal love live within us.

When we lose sight of who we are and whom we belong to, life, faith, and ministry become difficult and even overwhelming. Burnout happens not because we have become too busy, but because we have become too busy to receive from God’s love, which is the basis of everything we do. Ministry without love is meaningless and produces little. The Apostle Paul tells us if there is no love in what we do, we are nothing more than the hollow sound of a clanging cymbal (1 Corinthians 13:1).

Intimacy comes before ministry.

It is from the overflow of being loved by God that we rest on God’s promises and power for the work of the ministry.