Do you have enemies; people you don’t like? Someone who has done you wrong and you just can’t let go of the issue? I think we all have at least one person like that in our lives. Agape love – the love God has for each of us – transcends what we call love. Agape love is a sacrificial love that loves others, even our enemies, despite what they have done to us.
Week 33 of the Core 52 series by Mark Moore begins to explore this love. This is not the tingly love you experienced with a boyfriend or girlfriend or even your spouse. This is not the love you have for a parent, sibling, or child. This is the all-consuming love God has for each one of us. This is a love that for me, when I think about it and I mean really try to grasp it in its entirety, brings me to my knees.
The closest example I’ve ever heard goes like this. A young man is brought before a judge for a crime that requires the death penalty. The man is found guilty and is sentenced to death. At the hearing, his father comes forth and tells the judge, “I know my son is guilty. However, my love for him is so great, I offer my life for his.”
You can’t love God without loving other people and you can’t experience God’s love unless you love others including your enemies. It starts in the home with loving your family.
Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their
own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
1 Tim 5:8
This is your training ground. From there we reach out to love our neighbors and finally the most difficult, most rewarding and life changing, is showing God’s love to our enemies.
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even
the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers,[a] what
more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
Matt 5:46-47
You may be thinking, “You don’t know my circumstance. I can never forgive much less love this person.” And you would be correct. I don’t know your circumstance. What I do know is that with God, all things are possible. Trust God. Pray for the Holy Spirit to fill you and to heal you. Commit yourself to obeying God and you will see miracles happen in your life!
Have a blessed day!
– PSG –
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