The ME-CENTRIC life
“Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with Him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.”
Ephesians 5:2
It is the nature of children to follow the example of their father. As children of God, therefore, we must seek to follow the nature of our Father (God). In other to do this, we must walk in love. The subject matter love is a very touchy one. Most times we try in our own world, of course from our different viewpoint to explain how it works, what it means and all of that. The bottom line today however is this: 1 John 4:7 God is love. To love one another is a test of discipleship. If one maintains a behavioural character of actively loving his brother, then John said he is born of God.
It’s a new year and a whole lot of us have began to smash goals listed in our resolution book, please be guided that if your goals does not accommodate caring for other people and loving them unconditionally, it is as good as nothing. If all you are concerned about is how you travel around the world, eat the best food, enjoy the best ride, wear the most fashionable pieces, and have yourself the best job, if it is all about you, then you are a me-centric person and you do not have the love of God in you! This means that “You may get more than you’ve ever had this year if you’d swap your new year goals from what do I want in the new year, to what do I have to give.”
The first step to give love unconditionally is you’ve got to be whole; as you cannot give what you don’t have. And a broken or disturbed person whose heart is not right with God cannot possess a whole heart.
The most useful thing about having a whole heart is being able to give love a little more than you receive.
As a Christian, if I claim to love God but cannot replicate such love to my neighbour, then I am a liar. If the only thing I am concerned about is my wellness (emotional, physical, health, spiritual, financial and social) and I do not give just a tiny little regard to what the other person beside me feels, then I am a hypocrite and I do not know God.
God reached out to humanity with agape (love), that is, His grace was unconditional. We didn’t earn it. The moment we recognize this degree of love, it becomes easy to express such to other people. Also, since we are the ones who will in the future be called into eternal glory, we must put on the nature of Christ with whom we will dwell in heaven. The nature that most characterize the elect of God (as seen in Colossians 3:12) is developed by loving God and building interpersonal relationships based on loving our neighbour. This is the truth; love in action will produce the fruit of the spirit in our lives.
Prayer: Lord, teach me how to love like you do.
