Love is what the Christian's thought, care, and earnest desire should center upon.
Love to God, the center and source of all excellence. To Jesus, the embodiment of everything lovely. To believers, for His sake. And to sinners, because He commands us.
Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts.
I have to pursue love and desire spiritual gifts. It is up to me to pursue. 🙏
James Smith returns — the first voice Le ever read with a pastor. And he comes back with the word the whole journal has been building toward: love.
And Le names the other side of the balance: it is up to me to pursue. After twenty entries of Fénelon's abandonment — Smith says: pursue. And this is not a contradiction. It is the divine balance: grace performs everything, but with and through us. God produces the love — but we must pursue it. The letting and the pursuing are two sides of the same obedience. Spurgeon's bowl: the bowl is the pursuing. The filling is the grace. Both necessary. Both real.
It is not in our hearts by nature — we are enmity.
It is not to be produced by human effort.
It flows from grace. It is produced by the Holy Spirit.
Three facts that hold the whole journal: not by nature, not by effort, by grace. We are enmity by nature. No effort can turn enmity into love. Only the Holy Spirit can produce what nature cannot. And yet — pursue. The pursuing is the cooperation with the grace that produces. Le's note holds both truths: it is up to me to pursue — and absolutely nothing came from me. Both true. The divine balance.
Its exercise is our happiness and our holiness. There is no real religion without love; and only so much true godliness as there is love.
Let us love all the Lord's people — not merely those who see as we see. That is love of party.
Let us love all who love Jesus, though in some things they differ from us.
Smith's practical test: love all who love Jesus — even those who differ. Not love of party. Not love of tribe. James 3:17 — without partiality and without hypocrisy. The love that does not require agreement. Do they love Jesus? Then love them.
And the measure of godliness is not knowledge, not the number of entries: only so much true godliness as there is love. Fénelon: the main point is to love. Smith: there is no religion without it. Consuelo: the reward of God is God Himself. And God is love. 🙏
"It is up to me to pursue."
Le · Caldas da Rainha · July 31, 2026 · The divine balance — grace produces, the soul pursuesPursue
It is up to me to pursue love and desire spiritual gifts. The active verb. The bowl brought to the Generous One.
Not by Nature — By Grace
We are enmity by nature. No effort can turn enmity into love. It flows from grace. Produced by the Holy Spirit. And yet — pursue.
The Divine Balance
Grace performs everything — but with and through us. The letting and the pursuing: two sides of the same obedience.
Love All Who Love Jesus
Not love of party. Love all who love Him — though they differ. Only so much true godliness as there is love.