February 25, 2024
Week 7
Valuable Lessons Learned
Make Unconditional Love Your First Choice
This week’s reading on unconditional love is something that I am trying to practice. When I say practice, I mean to myself. Fact, you cannot give what you do not have, no matter how hard you try. My valuable lesson by applying I Corinthians 13:4-8 to every area of my life I then effortlessly can in turn reciprocate unconditional love to others. I am also more aware of saying I love you. As I am growing and intentionally understanding what love means according to the aforesaid scripture, I take the word seriously and thus no longer say it to say it.
Telling someone you love them is powerful and prophetic. When you say you love someone you are saying you are patient, kind and not envious, prideful, arrogant, resentful, or irritable; you are saying that you bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things and that through it all, love never ends. While this may look different for each of us, God’s word about love does not change.
Love is powerful because I opine it is the ultimate form of growth and maturity. If you demonstrate what love is, you do not give others authority over you because you are confident in the love of God. When you demonstrate God’s love, you can love those who wrong you. Please know that God’s love is not a door mat to except any and everything!!!! God’s love is a protective factor because if you are experiencing anything outside of what God said Love is then it is not love.
Love is prophetic because when it is used according to God’s word, it is speaking all the things that God designed it to do. This is why this week’s lesson was so inspirational and eye opening to me about love because as a believer when I say love, I am speaking what God’s word says about love into the person which in turn trickles over to the situation. God is love so if I truly demonstrate what love is then no matter what, God’s love will cover me and that is where I am resting, in God’s love for me.
While I can write about it, putting it into action is challenging. Loving someone who is hard to love requires God’s love. Hard to love means someone whose heart has been hardened by their traumatic life experiences and/or a person who has experienced one sided love most of his/her life. So, I know firsthand that I had to make an intentional decision to love according to God because my earthly way was creating a mess. I had to start speaking God’s love in my situation. And yes, God changed my communication with this person; He gives me a peace when I must have courageous conversations; make no mistake I have not passed all the tests but because of God’s love, I am way more aware of my triggers which allows me to seek God’s guidance before I respond. Through it all, God’s love does conquer all.
Reference:
Peebles, Y. (2020). Intrepid Hope My Personal Jouney To Wholeness. Newark: Godzchild Productions
