Let’s Begin with Love

In Episode 2 of Season 3, Desireé explores the first fruit found in Galatians 5 – Love. She dives into the science behind it and the biblical truth to back it up. True, sacrificial, biblical love points us to the gospel and, It. Is. Breathtaking! ✨

Topics include:

• The most famous Scripture on love… followed by some #realtalk (1:48)
• C.S. Lewis on the topic of love – and it’s SO good! (3:55)
• The science behind love… and it is a science (4:29)
• The breathtaking biblical truth about love (5:33)
• 7 promises that God gives to those who love Him (6:12)

Join Desireé as she uses her trips around the sun to throw encouragement around like confetti!

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Transcript

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 0:06

Ciao and welcome to Life out loud. I am your host Desireé Melfi Bozzo. We are going to use this space to share experiences and help you find lasting unshakable unwavering unmessable-with joy and gratitude. We're going to be throwing around encouragement, a little bit like confetti and giving you support to live your very best life. Ciao friends welcome to episode two of season three of the life Out Loud Podcast. I'm the creator of this podcast and your host Desireé Melfi Bozzo. If you are a new, newer, new-ish listener, hurray! I am so glad you are here. For my returning friends – I truly treasure you and the time that you're spending with me in this place. So thank you. This season as you may know, we are doing a deep dive into the fruits of the Spirit. And if you aren't familiar with them, head back to the last episode and take a quick listen. I offer really good foundational knowledge that's going to set you up for some big gains this season. I'm going to spend each episode of season three exploring the fruits and the wonderful ways that we can apply them to our lives. Galatians 5 tells us they are love joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and perhaps the most difficult for yours truly as far as ice cream is concerned self control. In this episode, we are starting with the first fruit love. So perhaps the most famous scripture on love is the one you hear at most weddings First Corinthians 13: 4-13 we all know and love it. Say it with me.“Love is patient, love is kind it does not envy it does not boast it is not proud. It does not dishonor others it is not self seeking, it is not easily angered it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” And we continue in the beginning of verse eight with “Love never fails.” Looking a few verses ahead at verse 13, we learn “and now these three remain faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” Friends, Can I be honest in the safe space and tell you that when this was read at our wedding, I thought it was so pretty. Of course it was so beautiful and Oh, fairytale-esque right. But I don't think I completely grasped the bigness of it all. See, when I married my husband at 24, I didn't get the magnitude of what I was stepping into. This fall, we've been married for 15 years and together for 20. I can tell you that these verses are everything when it comes to a good happy joy-filled successful marriage. Also, side note, in case no one really mentioned it. None of this is remotely easy, like at all. And here is the other piece. These verses though said at weddings aren't just for marriages. These words on love are for all of our relationships, with our children, with our parents, with our families, with our friends, with our co-workers with total strangers. These verses are for the people we like and they're for the ones that we can't be more different than. We are called to love when it's really really easy. And when it's really really hard. CS Lewis tells us that, and I'm going to quote, “love is not affectionate feeling. But a steady wish for the loved persons ultimate good. As far as it can be attained.” It is wishing for the ultimate good of another, even when we don't feel it. Let me tell you for someone who enjoys the feeling of a good feeling, OOF! This can be really difficult. Anyone else out there feel me on this? Asking for a friend. Love isn't a feeling that we chase in this world. Loving other people is a choice. It's something we choose every day. It's a far cry from the lies about love that we find portrayed in mainstream songs and books and TV shows and movies. Love isn't a feeling at all. As a matter of fact, that feeling of being in love scientifically lasts about a year. After that the nerve growth factor which is the chemical in charge of strong romantic feelings. actually starts to decrease. I think love is the first fruit that's mentioned in this list and Galatians five, because I truly believe it's the foundational fruit. If we aren't bearing the fruit of love, and I mean like true sacrificial biblical love, it means we haven't grasped the story of the gospel. And if we haven't grasped the ultimate sacrifice of John 3:16. Woah! Now you might point to this and say it's cliche, but it's actually real, biblical truth. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. In the most incredible display of love the world has ever seen. Our incredible Mighty God gave His Son, our sweet savior, to die a horrific death on a cross for you. And for me. To believe this is to take the heart posture of love. Everything begins with this. Friends, I know, I know that super heavy. It's probably more than what you were asking for when you pushed play on this podcast, but it really all does come down to love. In Psalm 91: 14-16, it's by far my favorite Psalm. Oh, it's so good. The Lord directly speaks to us and shows us his love for us. It's so prophetically in these verses that he offers a seven promises because He loves us. They are reserved for the ones so close to him so near to him, that they believe it and walk in obedience because of it. And let me stop here for a second. If obedience is a word that makes you bristle or want to click the off button, don't. I encourage you instead to head over to the very last episode of season two, where I unpack obedience in a really relatable way? It's not as bad as it seems, I promise. So picking back up friends because God loves us, He will rescue us. This is one of those seven promises and Psalm 91. He will rescue us He will protect us. He will answer us He will be with us in trouble. He will deliver us He will honor us. He will satisfy us with long life and show us his salvation. It is in direct relation to these promises that we can love others because God loved us first. In knowing Him, His love can shine through us. In knowing him we can love the unlovable and others – not saying it's easy, but we can do it. The greatest thing we can do in our lives is love. It is the thing that leaves the most lasting impact in the world. I venture to say it's greater than the work we do. Love is worth more than the money we make. And love will take us to places we can never get in a car, on a boat or on a plane. Love is the end game. When we love one another we change the game. Love is the first fruit and it's the very first fruit and I venture to say it's because all the others were born from love. We can only do the other fruits and bear the other fruits because it all starts with love. Before I sign off, I want to leave you with one of I think it's probably one of my favorite quotes on love. And it's by Rachel Macy Stafford and she says “Today I will choose love. Tomorrow, I will choose love and the day after that I will choose love. If I mistakenly choose distraction perfections or negativity over love. I will not wallow in regret. I will choose love until it becomes who I am.” Friends. I hope you enjoyed episode 2 of season 3. I really hope that you see love in a different way. And I hope it's in a way that can change the way you live. As always, please send me a message. I love hearing your thoughts. Come back next time we're going to continue to throw encouragement around like confetti but be careful if you get too close. You just might get some on you. And remember, there is always always always something to be thankful for. Ciao! Thank you for joining me, Desireé Melfi Bozzo for this episode of Life out loud. I would love to hear from you. Leave me a comment. Tell me what topics you want to talk about and how you take your coffee. If you enjoyed what you heard, text a friend the link share it on social media. Or if you're interested in becoming a supporter, be-bop over to my webpage live out loud at me and sponsor a cup of coffee that keeps this podcast fueled. Until next time sweet listeners