Motivation Monday - Why You Can LOVE Like Jesus
Why You Can LOVE Like Jesus:
1st in a Summer Series - “LIKE” Jesus
“Jesus is telling us how we are to love each other. But He’s also stating the way He loves all of us...me and you. Jesus loves you to the point of surrendering Himself to death in order to save you and bring you into intimate closeness with God.”
John 13:1 says this:
“Just before the Passover Feast, Jesus knew that the time had come to leave this world to go to the Father. Having loved his dear companions, he continued to love them right to the end.”
Jesus is in it for the long-haul. Among His earthly companions there were men who at one time rejected Jesus. There was another who betrayed Him. In reality, we are those people at one time or another. And so are the women around you. We mess up. We hurt God and we hurt each other. Yet God sticks it out. He is not about to unlove those He was committed to love.
The word “love” carries a whole lot of different meanings. For some of us it might bring to mind those warm fuzzy feelings of love at first sight. Or it might make us think about our favourite activity, and how we feel when we are participating. Perhaps it’s the love of a cherished place or memory.
But Jesus has a different love in mind when He shared His life with humanity.
These are Jesus’ words at his final dinner with His disciples in John 15:12-13:
“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
How is this kind of love different from the forms of love our culture promote?
Jesus tells us that the greatest love is one that surrenders self. The New Testament is written in Greek. In this passage, the word translated into the English love is the Greek word “agape” gah-
Jesus’ love is a deliberate and unconditional love
that is the result of choices and behavioUrs
rather than feelings and emotions.
Jesus is telling us how we are to love each other. But He’s also stating the way He loves all of us...me and you. Jesus loves you to the point of surrendering Himself to death in order to save you and bring you into intimate closeness with God.
The passage John 3:16 tells us that “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.”
I have read this passage over and over and yet, I still doubt that I am included, especially on my worst days. What about you?
Do you find it easier to accept that Jesus loves the whole world or that He loves you personally?
What does God’s sacrificial love tell you about your value?
John 15:9-10 tells us about the love between himself and the Father:
“I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love. That’s what I’ve done—kept my Father’s commands and made myself at home in his love.”
The only way to love ourselves and others is to love like Jesus did:
Receiving it from the Father.
Then being able to love unconditionally, and to the end.
This is a committed love.
This is the love that anchors you.
This is the love from which your identity exists.
This is a love that cherishes you on the good days and on the bad ones.
This is the love that calls forward your best to love the other.
As Jesus did.
If we know that we are loved, and believe that it is everlasting love, that ought to make it possible to love others. There’s no fear that being rejected will change how much I’m loved by the Father. There’s no fear that if we succeed or if we fail it will change the affection the Father has for us.
Sisters, you are so loved. You were created from love, through love, for love. I pray you would receive this truth today and that it will change everything for you!
I believe in you!
Cathie