Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends. Prov 17:9 (NLT)
“All you need is love” right? It’s nice to sing about, but living a life of love is something we do by choice. It’s not all gooey mushy nice electric feelings – sometimes love is the hard decision to get up and move forward when all you want to do is run away. Love helps you put one foot in front of the other on this journey of life. It's the glue in our relationships, the binding material of our makeup.
Firstly, the love of God is pure. There is no ulterior motive with God’s love – it’s simply available to us to build us up, heal us, strengthen us, and empower us to be all we were created to be. The love of God is a game changer.
Secondly, when you know you are loved unconditionally and without an agenda, you get a glimpse of who you really are, and you learn to love yourself. When you love you, you learn to treat yourself with respect and dignity. You don’t house thoughts or ideas that tear you down… Self-sabotage is not how you roll. When you are forgiven, you learn to forgive yourself for the past, for the present and in the future, and you can move forward with hope. Then something miraculous happens – you find you are able to forgive others…
Thirdly, love prospers – it grows and multiplies out from your life and into the relationships around you when you operate from it. It’s like a blossoming flower. Don’t stunt its growth with unforgiveness, bitterness and offence – those things will shrink your life. Let the fruit of love flow freely from you – forgiveness, mercy, compassion, kindness, hope…
Eph 3:17-19 puts it like this: “Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”
And with the ‘fullness of life and power that comes from God,' choose love today in all you do.
