Love

Whenever we decide to love, we are making a choice to allow ourselves to bleed. There can't be any other way. There IS no other way.

Love requires a little bit of dying to the self - regarding the other person's interest above that of our 'self'.

It doesn't require you to debase yourself and seek self humiliation but pushes you to a place of strength and self confidence you never thought you had.

Actually you never did.

This kind of love can only come when Christ occupies the throne of your life, the Holy Spirit influences your decisions and your life remains centered on the Father's love.... a confidence that comes in knowing who we are in Him and shaping our identity around who He is and what He did.

This gives you the strength to love without seeking to be loved; to love despite constant rejections; to love even when ignored and misunderstood; to love when all around you the temptation to quit and walk away is strong.

This love takes us to the cross and gives us a glimpse of Golgotha and what it took for God to love us. It's a bleeding kind of love but blood that purifies, strengthens and life giving.

Mercifully, Golgotha is not the end of the story. Every Golgotha has resurrection carved in it - death giving way to LIFE like we've never experienced before.

This is the power that comes through love that finds its inspiration in Christ. It forsakes self and takes on the presence of the living Lord Jesus.

Like Christ, it gives freedom for those we love to either leave us or stay by our side. It does not insist on its own way but delights in whatever makes the other person joyful.

It's a love like no other because it comes from the throne room of heaven. It's a love that the world cannot comprehend because it hasn't seen the tears of Christ the way His followers have.

It's a love that the world badly needs and only those who have been touched by Christ can show it.

And yes only then will the world know that we are Christians by our love.

Have you loved anyone today?