Reduce Me to Love: Unlocking the Secret to Lasting Joy by Joyce Meyer

Author:Joyce Meyer
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Religion, Christian Life, General
ISBN: 9780446532006
Publisher: FaithWords
Published: 2002-09-30T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Unconditional Love

For I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers,

Nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(ROMANS 8:38-39)

To fully understand all the different facets of love, we must talk about the two kinds of love: the God-kind of love and man’s love.

Man’s love fails, gives up; but God’s love does not. Man’s love is finite, comes to an end; but God’s love is infinite and eternal. Man’s love is dependent on favorable behavior and circumstances; God’s love is not. People place conditions on their love, but God’s love is unconditional.

LOVE IS UNCONDITIONAL

But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us.

(ROMANS 5:8)

According to God’s Word, He loved us before the world was formed, before we loved Him or believed in Him or had ever done anything either good or evil.

God does not require us to earn His love, and we must not require others to earn ours. We must realize that love is something we are to become; it is not something we do and then don’t do. We cannot turn it on and off, depending on who we want to give it to and how they are treating us.

As believers in Jesus Christ, the love we are to manifest to the world is the unconditional love of God flowing through us to them. We don’t receive God’s love and then try to give them ours. Our love has conditions and limits; His does not.

Loving people unconditionally is a very big challenge. I would be tempted to say it is impossible, but since God tells us to do it, surely He must have a way for us to do it. He never commands us to do something and then leaves us to perform it on our own. He does not throw us the football, so to speak, and then say, “Now you make the touchdown.” His grace (His power, ability and favor as we have said previously) is sufficient for us (2 Corinthians 12:9), meaning that He enables us to do what He has called us to do.

Sometimes we pray to be able to love the unlovely, and then do our best to avoid every unlovely person God sends our way. Some people are sent into our lives for the sole purpose of being sandpaper to us. Not only do others have rough edges, but so do we. Learning to walk in love with unlovely people and learning to be patient in trials are probably the two most important tools God uses to develop our spiritual maturity.

Believe it or not, all those obnoxious people in our lives help us. They sharpen and refine us for God’s use.

LOVE IS BEYOND MERE KNOWLEDGE

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