One of the most immense blessings I have found since belonging to Jesus and his family is the constant strive to love, the constant focus on love and the constant receiving of love. Our God proclaims himself to be love, and let himself be put to death on a cross for us to prove it.
How do we even comprehend that kind of love? We, as God’s daughters, are created for his glory. He saves us, forgives us, answers our prayers and equips us to love as He did! But what does that look like?
I can’t pretend to have all the answers, but recently Jesus has been teaching me in the realest manner what it is to love the way He loves. It is to sacrifice, to put someone else above yourself completely, even if it hurts. Love is to allow your own suffering, because you know that the other person will eventually be better for it.
This doesn’t mean allowing those who hurt you to carry on, but it means putting others above yourself, something the world continually tells us is weak and wrong. It is our greatest call in this life, and is God’s ultimate splendour, that “we love because He loved us first” – 1 John 4v19
It is also one of the hardest calls we have to answer as Christians. God doesn’t just save us, although he certainly does that, he calls us to “take up your cross and follow me” – Matthew 16:24. Jesus doesn’t ask us to die on the cross, he has already done that and we have no need to experience the punishment of death anymore. But he does ask us to carry the cross, to allow love for others to come above our own interests.
Is there someone you could love a little more selflessly today?
