The God kind of love is different to our love. Human love tends to be conditional, dependant on circumstances and perception. The God kind of love, agape love, is everything but conditional. It is unconditional, selfless, unafraid, patient, hopeful and enduring. But, most of all it is sacrificial: "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends" (John 15:13) Jesus was the ultimate demonstration of this God-kind-of-love, when He called us children (Romans 8:16) and layed down His life for us, as the perfect atoning sacrifice for our sins, forever! ( Hebrews 8:27)
Sometimes I wonder if it is at all possible to convey this agape love to other people, just as God has demonstrated it to me. I feel like I'm being a hypocrite (see previous post) and just paying lip-service to a concept that deserves action; that deserves my whole heart. In my musing, however, I realised that by being a born-again, spirit filled believer, I have everything pertaining to life and Godliness inside of me (2 Peter 1:3). This includes the God-kind-of-love, agape, that is just waiting to be unleashed on those around me.
Love must be a decision: we decide to love, not caring for any benefit that we may receive from it, but purely because He first loved us (Romans 5:8). The verse quoted in the beginning, is a picture of the world we live in. Most people walk around lost, lonely and directionless, they need a shepard, they need Jesus. It is the love that we demonstrate towards them, that will compel them towards a loving God, who wants to show them the enormity of the plan He has for their lives!
Faith without works is dead (James 2:17), but faith works through love (Galatians 5:22), so step out in faith and allow the love of God to work through you to reach out to those whom God loves and died for!
All scripture quoted from NKJV; emphasis added. Picture courtesy of shinybinary.com
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