Often times I would get stuck trying to answer the question, what is love? Oh, I know I’m not the only one. Pondering about why so often I acted in a very loveless way towards others, I realized that I had no idea what the true love really was. As I stated in my earlier posts, I believe that all the answers to all of our questions can be found in the word of God, and therefore, I will do my best to answer that question by exposing what the Lord showed me in His scriptures regarding this matter.
It is impossible for us to love unconditionally and therefore continuously unless we consider the source and truly understand and adhere to the definition of love that God himself in accordance with His divine nature set for us.
I’m going to make a statement, and you may not like it, but be patient and continue reading, and it will make sense, I promise. Here it is:
You (on your own) don’t have true love and, therefore, you cannot love God and the people He created.
But wait a minute, you might say, I love my spouse, my children, my friends and those around me. Really? When was the last time that one of them did or said something that provoked in you anger, judgment, resentment, harsh words, bitterness, detachment or any unwholesome thought process about that person? Did you feel violated as if someone ripped that so called love out of your heart leaving a gushing wound that you are patching up with the bandage of pride and unforgiving attitude? Even after they asked for forgiveness to bring about the reconciliation, you are not willing to let go of your pride bandage to allow your emotional wound to heal. Think of the situations when they did not come back to make it right. Then what? What happened to your love for them then? I can come up with a myriad of examples showing our lack of true love, an so can you, I am sure.
We find it extremely hard to love others including our own family when they wrong us in any way. Even our own children whether they are little or grown lose our so called love after an act of disobedience or any kind of wrongdoing on their part.
I believe that not understanding what true love is in its essence according to God’s word, we tend to find ourselves in this state of emotional roller coaster switching from “love” or mere affection to indignation and back to affection based solely on conditions of how we are treated. After a while, having to switch back-and-forth long enough, it is almost inevitable for us to grow indifferent towards those around us including our own children, spouse, friends and others. I am not even mentioning a complete stranger that we are so eager to avoid because of their appearance or behavior.
What about our love for God? We treat Him exactly the same as if He were just another human. Our jigsaw- like “love” relationship with the Lord ends up being full of frustration, and our walk with Christ becomes just another heavy burden in the already ever increasing load of unfulfilled relationships that seams impossible to carry, and we give up. We rationalize going to church as “doing it for the kids” who, seeing our hypocrisy, inconsistency and the lack of unconditional love for the body of believers (whole another topic) and God Himself, leave the church making it easier for us to ultimately withdraw from the body of Christ completely. We then fully plug back into the world and whatever it has to offer, and our state is even worse than ever before.
The very notion of the unconditional love has become completely unattainable in our minds, something so high and distant to reach that we regard it as impossible. The very idea that someone in our midst can love unconditionally has become a delusion on their part and flat out lie. Only God is able to love unconditionally, we rationalize in our minds, and therefore, we settle for a perverse version of love which is not love at all, but rather a counterfeit substitute for that which has been freely given to us by our Lord. We allow the world to dictate what love is and not realizing that any deviation from understanding and practicing the true love has already lead us to where we are now in our relationship with God and those around us.
I want to encourage you that there is a sure way out of this rather painful and unfulfilling existence which is exactly where the evil one wants us to be in order to render us ineffective.
My question to you is, are you ready for a monumental transformation and willing to walk through the change in how you see God and people?
If the answer is yes, then stay tuned for the part two of this message in which I will show you where the unconditional and true love is and how to use it. Are you excited? I know I am.
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Galatians 2:20
True wouldn’t make us wait for part 2.