I recently attended a college church service where the topic was love, specifically God’s love. So, of course, the fact that God’s love is unconditional came up. Eventually, the thought of God’s love being conditional rather than unconditional was thrown out to think on. And at this point I zoned out and just started thinking to myself. I wondered why my love is conditional and the Lord’s is not? I mean the easy answer would be to say that I am human and God is not, He is holy. This is true and actually explains it but for me I need a little more, I need to dig a little deeper.
I got to thinking about confidence. I got to thinking about love filtered through confidence. When my love is conditional towards others it’s because I either get hurt, let down, have unmet expectations, feel the need to be in control to stop future hurt, and so on. What if I show love to someone who has done something awful to me? What will other people think of me? Right there, that’s it. Showing love or not showing it allows others to see us, our heart, and our character and then they get to say something about it. People talk. We know that. People will always talk. But do they get to determine who we are? Nope, not unless we allow them to. Not unless we buy into the idea that they know best and we give them that right.
So what if I was surer of myself? Let’s look at the Lord. Our God is who He says He is. He doesn’t have to defend Himself or give some elaborate justification that He is the God above all. He simply says I AM who I say I AM. He doesn’t lack confidence and He doesn’t lack love either. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that those two things occur. His love doesn’t have to be conditional because His character is not conditional. It is not conditional upon anyone’s decisions, not on anyone’s emotions, not on anyone’s words, beliefs, ideas, or worldly authority. Our God is not swayed like we are. He doesn’t wake up on the wrong side of the bed and have a snappy, negative attitude. He is good and loving today and He will be tomorrow just like He always has been.
We won’t ever get it perfect. We know that. But I do believe that as our confidence in who God says we are grows then the conditionality of our love will fade. As we fellowship with the Holy Spirit and allow Him to have His way in and through us His love will be extended in times that our flesh would have withheld it.
Easy?
No.
Worth trying and practicing?
Absolutely.
Post by Ashley Carter