It’s elusive. We
all need it, want it and spend time looking for it. Because of our brokenness we look for it in
the wrong places, for the wrong reasons and in the wrong ways. We’re often blind to its very presence. We are willing to pay for it at great cost,
in time, self sacrifice, money, possessions, reputation, physical hardship and
even abuse. The great paradox is that it
finds those who are not searching for it and don’t deserve it, and those who have
it receive more by giving it away.
We mistakenly think it comes from other people. So we join their churches, clubs and gangs, participate in their activities, go to their parties and invite them to ours, strive for their attention and approval, nurture relationships with them, and marry them. But other people are also broken and not the true source, which leads to great frustration in our quest for it and can result in disappointment, loneliness, bitterness, anger and even violence.
By now you’ve undoubtedly realized I’m talking about love. But not the kind of love that the world talks about, which basically says, “I love me and I want you.” No, I’m talking about the kind of love that is totally undeserved, requires nothing in return and is willing to pay the ultimate price for the sake of its object. The only man who ever lived who was capable of that kind of love was Jesus.
A few years ago I was thanking the Lord for the blessing of the loving wife that He had given me many years before. Through a series of remarkable events and circumstances He, unmistakably, had brought us together and had blessed our marriage. Suddenly, as though He pulled the blinders back from my eyes, I realized that the love I had experienced from her down through the years was really His.
It was not like a hand-off in a relay race where He had given her a package of love that she then delivered to me, but that Jesus was actually present through His Holy Spirit loving me – not remotely or mechanically, but personally and actively working in and through her. (However, she was a willing channel to be used in that way.) It was a moment of intimacy with Him that brought tears of joy and humility, to think that He cared so much for me.
We mistakenly think it comes from other people. So we join their churches, clubs and gangs, participate in their activities, go to their parties and invite them to ours, strive for their attention and approval, nurture relationships with them, and marry them. But other people are also broken and not the true source, which leads to great frustration in our quest for it and can result in disappointment, loneliness, bitterness, anger and even violence.
By now you’ve undoubtedly realized I’m talking about love. But not the kind of love that the world talks about, which basically says, “I love me and I want you.” No, I’m talking about the kind of love that is totally undeserved, requires nothing in return and is willing to pay the ultimate price for the sake of its object. The only man who ever lived who was capable of that kind of love was Jesus.
A few years ago I was thanking the Lord for the blessing of the loving wife that He had given me many years before. Through a series of remarkable events and circumstances He, unmistakably, had brought us together and had blessed our marriage. Suddenly, as though He pulled the blinders back from my eyes, I realized that the love I had experienced from her down through the years was really His.
It was not like a hand-off in a relay race where He had given her a package of love that she then delivered to me, but that Jesus was actually present through His Holy Spirit loving me – not remotely or mechanically, but personally and actively working in and through her. (However, she was a willing channel to be used in that way.) It was a moment of intimacy with Him that brought tears of joy and humility, to think that He cared so much for me.
That experience also taught me that when I act in
accordance with the guidance of the Holy Spirit in demonstrating love to
someone, the desire of my heart should be that they would not see me and just
be grateful to me. Instead, I want them
to see Jesus, realizing that the love they experienced is from Him, the true
source that will never fail. I pray that
I will remember to use any praise toward me as an opportunity to give honor to
the One who was able to use me as a channel for His love.
Last year, during my near-death experience, I vividly saw what Jesus had done for me in His death on the cross. When He gave me the opportunity just to taste slightly of one of the ways in which He suffered, the blinders came a little further off my eyes to see just how great was His love for me and to draw me even closer to Himself.
May the Lord, likewise, draw you to greater intimacy as you understand how He personally loves you, even when it is through others who may not even be aware of it.
This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. – John 15:12, 13 (NASB)
Last year, during my near-death experience, I vividly saw what Jesus had done for me in His death on the cross. When He gave me the opportunity just to taste slightly of one of the ways in which He suffered, the blinders came a little further off my eyes to see just how great was His love for me and to draw me even closer to Himself.
May the Lord, likewise, draw you to greater intimacy as you understand how He personally loves you, even when it is through others who may not even be aware of it.
This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. – John 15:12, 13 (NASB)
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