True Love

I have decided that the only way you can truly love someone is with God's help.  I have also discovered that people need you to love them the most when they have done wrong.  I have a picture frame in my house with I Corinthians 13 written on it.  This is another one of those verses that we all know and can probably recite from memory.  But do we really know what it means?  My focus today isn't on the entire thirteen verses, (although I suggest that you read the entire chapter), but just one. Verse 7...'Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres'. 

It is easy to love someone when they are doing everything that you ask them to do, when they agree with everything that you say.  But what about when they mistreat you, lie on you, cheat on you, break your heart, disappoint you, hurt your feelings, are mean to you...should I go on?  When these circumstances occur, showing love is not so easy.  That is because we have been taught that love is all about how we feel on the inside.  Loving someone is about what we receive from someone.  I don't believe that is the type of love these verses talk about.  I believe that they type of love Paul talked about in these verses was a love you give not a love you receive.  I have heard countless people use this verse as guidelines for the scorecard they keep for their friend or their significant other. It's funny to me that we believe someone loves us if they show love that does all these things but we fail to give the same type of love in return.  Now most of y'all reading this know that I am about self-improvement.  That means it's time to throw the scorecard away.  Yes, I said it...throw the scorecard away.  Instead let's do a self-test.  Where would you rate yourself on the type of love you give away?  Is it the type of love that imitates these four characteristics? When I did  my own self-test I came to the conclusion that I am shaky at best.  What about you?

How do we get to the point that we love someone unconditionally? The type of love that God demonstrated for us...'in that while we were yet sinners, He died for us'.  What about the mere fact that 'He so loved us that He gave...' ?  The kind of love that keeps on loving me even now when I continue to sin.  I have come to the conclusion that we can do anything with God's help.  This includes loving the unlovable.  Now I am not saying allowing someone to walk all over you.  I will stand by my statement that God wants what is best for His children.  What I do mean by this is that even when someone mistreats us, don't treat them wrong.  Love never changes. We continue to love them as Christ would love them.  After all, love is about sacrifice.  The type of love that Paul talked about in this chapter is 'agape'.  It is the kind of love that produces the ultimate act of giving up one's own good for the good of someone else.  Do you realize the kind of witness you would be to someone else when you continue to love in spite of what they did or didn't do or how they acted?  What a true testament to the power of God working in your life! As children of God we should be striving daily to be all that God wants us to be.  This should be evident not only in our private lives but in the lives others see everyday.

Dear Lord,

In the past loving someone through everything has not been the easiest thing for me.  When I love hard and when I am hurt I tend to close that love off instead of showing your love to others no matter what.  I want to have a selfless kind of love, one that doesn't depend on anyone else but one that is a direct result of the love you have given me and the change you have made in my life.  In Jesus' Wonderful Name Amen.