It’s easy to love
when the person reciprocates that same level of love back. It’s easy to love
other Christians that treat you nicely and make you feel appreciated. But when
we restrict our understanding of love to this, we limit the way in which we
express our gratitude towards others, and most importantly we begin to water
down the commandment of Christ { John 15:12 - This is my commandment: Love each
other in the same way I have loved you. }
When we even begin to
attempt to comprehend the love that Jesus displays towards us, we see that His
love has no boundaries. It doesn’t stop at ‘you’ve hurt me so now I no longer
love you.’ It doesn’t depend on what we do, how we act or the way in which we
try to love God back. It is simply a love without limits. It’s a love saturated
in grace and kindness, one that does not grow weak when not received back.
I have been challenged
personally in this area lately, grappling with the evident selfishness of my
own heart. The love that I claimed to give to people often had ‘terms and
conditions’. It was very much dependent on how I felt in the moment, how I
viewed a person at present, and was filled with very little grace. Reading
through 1 Corinthians 13 that explores the elements of love and the great
importance that genuine love holds, I was taken back by verse 5- ‘’It does not demand its own way’’ Loving
someone is bigger than your own desires and what you believe you need to put up
with. This love described in the word is pure. It’s not one of greed or
self-centred motives, but it operates through the character of Christ Jesus by
putting the thoughts and heart of others before your own.
Verse 7 goes on to say ‘’Love never gives up, never loses faith,
is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.’’ When people
upset and offend us, do we instantly rush to burn bridges, cut people off and
act in an ungodly manner? Or do we choose to cover them in grace, lift them up
in prayer and love on them regardless of whether they show love back? Love
endures through the toughest of circumstances, so we have therefore been called
to walk in the kind of love that doesn’t abandon patience and kindness at the
first call of anger or unhappiness. Instead of this, we must intentionally reflect
on the unfailing grace that Christ showers us with, and extend it to everyone
we come across, knowing that we love because He loved us first. {1 John 4:19}
It also mentions that love never gives up. We must never act upon our flesh and
walk out on people that we know God has placed in our lives simply out of our
inability to love. Our walk with Christ is a constant process of forgiving
those that may not even acknowledge how they hurt us, but never the less still
choosing to remain hopeful that God will do a mighty work in the hearts of both
you and the other person/people.
Sitting silently before
the Lord, He convicted me of my personal behaviour and made me realise that I
had cultivated this mind-set that was so far from the instruction of the word
of God which mentions that love is not ‘proud’. I had gotten to such a place
where I had been freely receiving the goodness of God through His forgiveness
and mercy, but as soon as it was time for me to then reflect that same love, I
would shut off and pride would take over. So I sat before the Lord asking Him
for a softened heart towards His people, knowing that within myself I needed a
new outpour of grace to show those around me the gentleness that God desired
for me to display.
So I encourage you to
reach out to those who seem unlovable and show them the true love of Christ. Be
a living example of love that doesn’t need to be repaid or exchanged, but is
simply just given. As we continue to seek to pursue the heart of God, may we
not neglect the magnitude of benevolence that God has called us to as disciples
of Jesus Christ. CHOOSE to love unconditionally.
Contact Me:
Email - kingdomambassadors@hotmail.com
Twitter - @_caitlinnunez
Instagram - @caitlinnunez
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