Love is continuing to love through imperfections. Love is Christ.
Recently, the Lord has been dealing with me in prayer regarding some family members that can be challenging to love. I love how God uses natural things to speak of himself. To point us back to him and to mirror our relationship with him.
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. Romans 1:20 (ESV)
I recently had a situation where a family member that I am getting to know has been pretty mean to me on more than one occasion. The last thing that this family member did was the last straw. I was so upset at her to the point where I could not respond to her for two days because I knew I would not have anything to say. I was so floored at her behavior.
My brother called me and I shared how upset I was that I did not know what to do. I wanted to get back at her and I wanted to cut her off, and as I got off the phone with my brother the thought came to my mind, “Do you love her?” I said to myself I did not know if I loved her. Well, I guess according to the Biblical definition of love that would be something that I would need to work on. I made it my resolve to pray about my family member and see what God thought before I responded.
As I prayed for my relative, I was reminded that love is not love or only necessary when it is easy to love people, but it is most necessary and heartfelt when it is difficult to love people. God placed it on my heart that he wanted me to be an example of his love to her, and at the same time use her to mirror his love to me in that despite my imperfections I am still worthy of love.
Love is consistency through the imperfections. We become perfected in love. Real love is Christ. Christ showed his love to us in that while we were yet in our sins, Christ died for the ungodly. Because God made a choice to love us while we were unfit for love; we now walk as whole and complete individuals in Christ.
It is a similar situation with my relative and I. Though, she has been mean and imperfect, I can through God’s grace that he has shown toward me remember how I need God’s love to cover my imperfections and thus cover my relative’s imperfections through walking in love.
It is something how God uses our natural relationships to mirror our relationship with him. How he has placed me into a relationship with my relative that I cannot escape and although difficult both her and I become better for it. She gives me a certain look as if she is afraid of rejection when she knows she has done something wrong, but instead of being difficult, I can choose to in love give her grace. Just like when we do something wrong and shy from God’s presence, God deals with us still according to love.
God’s word goes on to say that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ and it names off some things: Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all Creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:37-38
God is trying to prove a point here. He is trying to communicate the depth of his love, and even so we still have not totally gotten it. God in his consistent care of us provides examples that are tangible to remind us of the simple fact that he loves us. His love is so deep that it takes a special revelation just to get how deep his love is for us. It isn’t based on our works, worthiness, or perfection.
Recently, God had exposed some things to me that were in my heart that weren’t right, and I was sort of upset with myself thinking Russelyn, how could you have this in your heart, you are supposed to be better, but God’s comfort to me was in the fact that he still loved me in spite of myself and the things that he had shown me that he’s been working on in me. We become perfected through God’s love. God’s perfect love casts out all fear. We no longer come to God in fear of failing him or being rejected by him because we know that he is on our side to love us all the way to the expected end that he has for us. Just like with my relative.
What are some of the examples that God has given you in your personal life of his great love toward you? Are you embracing those things or people? Pray to God to continue to reveal his love toward you and in you and he will?
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