What is True Love
Today I choose to be thankful for the hard things in my life, like people trampling on my heart. You must have gone crazy you may say, no one in their right mind would ever be thankful for something as painful as that! In fact that is the most painful thing we can experience in this life, how could anyone say such an awful thing!
This is the subject we discussed this morning in devotions, how can we overcome the hurt of when you take someone in who is in desperate need, and pour your heart out to them, and after a while they turn around and trample your heart?
They receive and learn and receive some more until they realize that in order to become a person like they see you as, involves giving up things and surrendering their life to serve God and other people rather than themselves, they turn around and trample our heart. This is something we have experienced over and over in our Christian life, and it is the most horrific pain that I have ever experienced. Yet we keep doing it over and over again.
The question was asked this morning; how do you completely overcome that pain, so that the next time you’re not like; I’m just not going to get that close this time, so when they turn their back it won’t hurt so bad. This is exactly what we as human tend to do, after all God gave us the ability to wrap up our heart with some protection in order to not let anyone get close enough to hurt us this way again.
As we recalled the different ones who we have tried to help and show the Love of Christ, but later trampled our hearts underfoot, tears flowed from the depth of our hearts where the scars still remain from each time it happened. So why would we keep doing it?
Every time this happens, we choose whether we will forgive that person and go on to open our hearts to the next person, or if we will wrap another layer of protection around our heart so that the next time the stab won’t go so deep. If we keep doing this we will soon be holding everyone we come in contact with at arms length to make sure that when they take a jab at us they can’t reach our heart. You know, we really can take charge of things and protect ourselves from such agony. And with the human version of love, this is exactly what we will do.
But let me tell you a story: There was once a King who had a Son. The Son lived in His Father’s Kingdom where everything was peaceful. There was no fighting, arguing or jealousy since the time when His Father had expelled Lucifer from the Kingdom who had tried to overthrow the King and grab the position for himself. With Him being the only Son had it made! He had no needs, He had everything He wanted. His Father Loved Him dearly and the whole Kingdom was same as His.
Then one day the King said to His Son; “You know those creatures that I made to look like Us on planet earth, the ones I love so much, the ones we called humans. I made them so carefully and perfectly. I made their hearts in a way so that My Spirit fits in just right and I can communicate with them and they with me. Well they have chosen to follow the ways of Lucifer instead of the way I instructed them. This just breaks my heart, because I told them if they choose to disobey My command, My Spirit could no longer live in their hearts, that it would separate them from me (spiritual death) because I cannot be united with sin.”
“Oh no,” said the Son, “how will you communicate your Love to them now?” The King continued, “since they have chosen to follow Lucifer instead of me, I can’t bring them into My Kingdom, and I have no other option but to send their spirit and soul to hell with Lucifer. But that’s just hard, because I Love them dearly! Just look at them, they look like little Us’ns running around down there.” “That is so sad” said the Son, “but I know that what you say is right.”
“I made them in a way so that they could choose what they want to do,” said the King, “but I thought that if I reveal My Love to them, they would want to follow Me. But they didn’t! And now that they don’t have My Spirit, they will never fully understand what I want them to know, and I can’t bring them into My Kingdom with us, because I have cleansed this Kingdom and I will not bring anyone in it that does not want to honor Me as their King, to be with Us for eternity.”
“You are right Father” said the Son, “It would not be good to bring someone into Your Kingdom that doesn’t want You to rule over them, it would just cause trouble. That is such a shame, because You had such great plans for them, and look at them, they all just follow after their own desires and interests, hurting others along the way, instead of paying attention to what You told them to do. They just don’t seem to get it that You Love them and want them to Love the ones around them with that same Love. Not one of them is doing everything right, so there is no hope to bring them into Our Kingdom.”
“I have a plan,” said the King. “You are right. They don’t get it, and none of them is holy. I will send You to them as a human to show them what it looks like and feels like when someone Loves them the way You and I Love each other. You will show them and tell them how much I Love them, Maybe then they will get it, that My Love is absolute, no matter what they do My Love for them stays the same. And that it’s because they have disobeyed My commands that we can’t be together.”
“I can do that, said the Son. How long do you think I should stay there?” But wait, said the King, “I know that as long as My Spirit does not live in their hearts, they will still not be able to be perfect. And as long as they are not perfect, My Spirit cannot live in their hearts. This is impossible!” “But nothing is impossible for you Father,” said the Son.
“You’re right Son, said the King. We will do this! You will go there and be born of a virgin human so that you can know the weakness of them, live a perfect life among them, and then they will kill you. But because you will not do sin, your perfect life will be a sacrifice for their sin. I will put their sins on your body and you will pay the price for all the sins that humans have ever done and will ever do, except when they blaspheme My Spirit. But I will bring you back to life in three day and you will come back here to our Kingdom and rule with Me forever.”
“Then the ones who are willing to repent from their sins, believe that you are My Son and have paid for their sins by your death may ask Me with a sincere heart to forgive them, and if they are actually willing to follow My commands, I will forgive them and put My Spirit into their hearts and seal it. They will need to be willing to give up their life and trade it for yours, and then I will look upon them as perfect, because it will be like looking at you.”
“I know they will still be humans, but with My Spirit in their hearts I will be able to communicate with them again and teach them. And I will give them My strength to overcome the things they struggle with. And if Lucifer comes and tries to deceive them again I will be right there to remind them of who is messing with them, and because I will live in them and they believe My promises, they will be able to, in Your Name, tell Lucifer and his demons to go and leave them alone, and he will have to go.”
“Then I will be able to help them understand the difference between My Love and their kind of love. Their kind of love always needs something in return, and if they don’t get what they expect, their love goes away. But My Love is unconditional, which means that if I Love someone, that’s it, I Love them. Just because they don’t love me back doesn’t change the fact that I Love them all the same, it simply means that they loose the blessing of knowing My Love.”
“Because Your name on earth will be Christ, which means Redeemer, those who believe in You and become born again with My Spirit will be called Christians. Because I will teach them to be little christs, who will follow Your example of Loving their fellow humans with My Love so that all humans will be able to see that I am good. And they will tell others about the Good News too, that the price for their sins has been paid by You, and if they believe in their hearts that this is true, and turn to me, I will give them eternal life. But if they don’t receive the gift of salvation, I have no choice but send them to hell with Lucifer, the one whom they have chosen to be their king.”
“After they see My Goodness and know how much I Love them they will surely be willing to surrender their lives to Me with the promise of being able to spend all eternity with Us, rather than being tortured in hell with Lucifer forever.” “You have the plan Father,” said the Son, “it will be hard, but I will do it!” And He did! This is what True Love looks like!
I have surrendered my life to God, and have received the gift of eternal life and the Holy Spirit. My heart’s desire is to be a little christ that looks and acts as much as my Lord Christ as possible. And with coming back to the subject in the beginning of this article, why would I let a little inflicted pain cause me to become wrapped up in myself and my comforts rather than continue to show others the True Love that only comes from God.
I believe our time on this earth is short, and I’m afraid that not all people will get to see and hear the Good news, so I don’t want to waste any of my time sitting in self pity. Eli Lee
