Freed to Love
I had Susan read out loud this wonderful on the way to church yesterday:
"Knowing God as our Father, and knowing that we're sons and daughters of God has a great influence on our relationshp with other people. When our life is not flowing from the profound peace and security that comes from knowing God's love for us as a Father, these relationships can only be frustrating and disappointing. We will be looking for something from other people that can only come from God."
"God's love can free us from demanding and free us for giving in human relationships. His love can free us from possessing people. His love can let us relax and accept a relationship for what it is, without placing unreasonable demands or unrealistic hopes on it, knowing that our deepest need is filled only by God." -- Ralph Martin, Hungry for God
Last night God blessed us with a wonderful Mother's Day treat -- our college student children ate dinner with us and spent a long time at the dinner table telling us about their relationships with school friends. Especially their male/female relationships. Dating and learning to relate to the opposite sex during those college years can at times be so intense and tumultous. Do you remember those days?
Before our children left, I read that same quote from Ralph Martin that Susan and I had read earlier.
I'm so convinced that what Martin says is true -- the Lord Jesus frees us to love others in a healthy way when we allow Him to continually fill our hearts with His love. We won't be so "clingy" with our family members, with friends. We'll be less demanding. When disappointed by them, it will still hurt us but won't devastate us. Because we're rooted in the everlasting, overflowing and soul-energizing love of the Holy Spirit that is poured into our hearts (Rom. 5:5). We're truly freed to love.
My question for you is this: "In what specific ways has the love of Abba Father freed you to love others in non-demanding, non-controlling ways?
Jim
posted by Jim Clark @ 8:13 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Jim-
God is always pointing us to the important issues. The Spiritual over the temporal, the permanent over the temporary, the heavenly over the worldly. What's important about that is what happens when we accept his perspective. Every time we share, or care, or love someone else, we lay up treasure in heaven. I remember as a kid going to the family reunion or church luncheon. The kids all sat at the little tables and were entertained in childish endeavors, where selfish issues were most important and almost anything could become an insult. I have blogged this once before, but God is inviting us to sit at the big table, the place where we celebrate the Spiritual, the permanent, the heavenly. At the big table, insults and accusations are unimportant, because total security is what calms us. Our worth and value are set by God, who traded his only son to free us. At the big table, God's generosity fills us until it overflows to all around us. At the big table, we are invited by his grace to freedom. Freedom to serve without the expectation of reward, freedom to love even when it's one-sided, freedom to put our assets into the heavenly account, where stock prices don't go down and we are vested in God's profit sharing. I wonder what God thinks when I choose to sit at the "little kids table" and consume my time with selfish concerns? He offers us all a seat with him at the big table, but we make the choice to sit there. That freedom is what allows us to love, and love is the identifying characteristic of Christianity.
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