I saw a post the other day that alarmed me. It said, “Do not force your kids to love family that doesn’t reach out to them”. I was confused. Like, what does that have to do with love?……..there is so much flesh, conceit, and boastfulness in this comment. Now, let me put this disclaimer out there, I am speaking from a Christianity base point. As Christians, I hope this is not what we are teaching our children or anyone else’s children for that matter.
Love is not yours to give or take away. The spirit of love belongs to the Father. We are gifted the spirit of love, because God first loved us. We know and experience love because God loved us before we were formed in our mother’s womb. We know and experience love because God gave His son so that we can live an abundant life.
Now, you may try to stifle that love or smother that love, but the spirit of love doesn’t just go away. In this life we will experience many different forms of love. One of the very first love we experience in this life is the love of a parent. Then you may experience the love of siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncle etc. Then you may experience love in a relationship with a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or a wife. Then you may experience the love of your children and grandchildren. You may even experience platonic love with a friend. However, you know and experience all these different kinds of love still because God loved you first. You wouldn’t know how to describe what love is had it not be expressed or shown toward you. However, these are good loves, but all of these loves are conditional. The only unconditional, agape love you’ll ever experience in this life is the love of God.
We cannot weaponized love and use it as a way to fulfill our own agenda. We have the power to love, but we certainly do not have the power to take it away. God commands us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Love because God loves you, not because someone loves you back. Human love is faulty, that’s guaranteed. When we love in and of ourselves, it’s conditional. There is only so far this flesh can take us. We know this to be true because some of us witness the broken relationships of families every day. That’s the result of human love and not godly love. God is not saying to allow anyone to purposefully mistreat or misuse you, however, He is saying love like me through the spirit. Outside of God we will fail, therefore we need Him to fulfill the true purpose of love. The reason we experience so much hurt and disappointment is because we place self-love where there should be godly love.
The Bible tells us in1 Peter 4:8 to love each other deeply because love covers a multitude of sin. The Bible also tells us that love is forgiving and doesn’t keep a record of wrong. How many times have we said we have forgiven someone for something but still holding on to it? That’s what you call human love. God is charging us to love like Him. I am always reminded of the many times I mess up and God still forgives me and loves me. Well, God wants us to operate in the same spirit of love. We can’t say that we love God and have never seen Him, but see our brothers and sisters every day and don’t give love to them freely. 1 John 4:20
We should strive every day to love according to the spirit of God and not of our flesh. You know what God said about this flesh right, that there is no good thing it in. However, God gave us the power to keep this flesh under subjection. I encourage you today, to love freely, cage free love. Forgive those that hurt you so that your Father in Heaven will also give you. Ephesians 4:32
I know, I know, the world had created a fairytale out of love. But, love is not a fairytale. Love is a true living spirit of the Father that He so freely shares with us every day. God’s love is never changing, unyielding, overwhelmingly freeing. To love like God is life changing and provoking. I pray each of you know and experience love life this.
Blessings Flow!