1 John 4:8 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
In a month of surrender, you may be wondering why a verse on love was included. Sometimes we have to surrender our feelings in order to love others. Let’s explore it more in depth.
Love can be called a cornerstone to our faith, or the foundation upon which we build. We are commanded to love the Lord (Matt 22:37) and to love others (Matthew 22:39). It is easy to love those we are close to – our family and our friends. But what about those who we don’t get along with? What about those who do not like us?
Like it or not, we are called to love our enemies and to do good to them (Luke 6:35). It sounds easy enough, but sometimes it takes all we have to do this. It can be a real challenge. And though we say we love God with all our hearts, if we fail to love others we can’t truly call ourselves Christians (1 John 4:20).
As we make efforts to love those we don’t necessarily like we realize that it takes surrender. We have to surrender our emotions – the bitterness, dislike, disgust, irritation, etc. – in exchange for His will. We surrender ourselves and allow the Spirit within us to love those we feel are difficult or impossible to love.
Remember- God is the source of love. Christ loves us so much He gave His life for us. The least we can do is surrender our pride and dislike of others and choose to love them instead.
Be the first to comment