“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
1 John 3:16,18 (NIV)
Unconditional love. That’s a hard one to wrap our minds around, isn’t? We live in a world in which we are constantly expected to perform to some standard. Whether it’s a revenue projection for a major corporation, a sales quota that must be met by a sales person, or an expectation for a home cooked meal at the end of the day, we all have expectations. We have become performance based people. If you do this, I’ll do that. If you meet my needs, I’ll meet yours. If you love me, I’ll respect you. The difficulty comes in when one of us doesn’t live up to the other one’s expectations. It is in these moments when who we say we are has the opportunity to be expressed with actions and in truth.
When the ones you are in relationship with hurt or disappoint you what are you going to do? Will you keep your love for them “turned on?” Are you willing to put the relationship above your own expectations? Are you willing to protect the relationship over protecting yourself? You see, unconditional means exactly what you think it means. It’s not limited or conditioned upon something else. It’s unlimited and unqualified. It means I can’t control what you choose to do or say or think. I can only control what I will choose to do and say and think.
Will I choose to die for the relationship? That’s unconditional love and we have the opportunity to show our love for the Father by demonstrating it in how we treat others, after all Christ did it for you and I! It is Christ living through us that allows us to lay our life down for our brothers.
Father, how you are able to love me, regardless of how I am towards you, is beyond my comprehension. But I am eternally grateful that You do! I ask that through Christ living in me, You will increase my ability to love unconditionally. Amen.
Living it out!
The next time you encounter disappointment or hurt at the hands of someone else, before you respond, stop and ask Christ to reveal to you what unconditional love looks like in the situation.
1 John 3:16,18 (NIV)
Unconditional love. That’s a hard one to wrap our minds around, isn’t? We live in a world in which we are constantly expected to perform to some standard. Whether it’s a revenue projection for a major corporation, a sales quota that must be met by a sales person, or an expectation for a home cooked meal at the end of the day, we all have expectations. We have become performance based people. If you do this, I’ll do that. If you meet my needs, I’ll meet yours. If you love me, I’ll respect you. The difficulty comes in when one of us doesn’t live up to the other one’s expectations. It is in these moments when who we say we are has the opportunity to be expressed with actions and in truth.
When the ones you are in relationship with hurt or disappoint you what are you going to do? Will you keep your love for them “turned on?” Are you willing to put the relationship above your own expectations? Are you willing to protect the relationship over protecting yourself? You see, unconditional means exactly what you think it means. It’s not limited or conditioned upon something else. It’s unlimited and unqualified. It means I can’t control what you choose to do or say or think. I can only control what I will choose to do and say and think.
Will I choose to die for the relationship? That’s unconditional love and we have the opportunity to show our love for the Father by demonstrating it in how we treat others, after all Christ did it for you and I! It is Christ living through us that allows us to lay our life down for our brothers.
Father, how you are able to love me, regardless of how I am towards you, is beyond my comprehension. But I am eternally grateful that You do! I ask that through Christ living in me, You will increase my ability to love unconditionally. Amen.
Living it out!
The next time you encounter disappointment or hurt at the hands of someone else, before you respond, stop and ask Christ to reveal to you what unconditional love looks like in the situation.
Ssooo relevant!!! Don't know if anyone else can realte, but I have some extended family members that darn right difficult. I must depend on God's supernatural empowering to demonstrate love and respect during times when I plain don't feel like it!
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