Posts Tagged: practicing unconditional love
“CONDITIONAL LOVE FOR GOD?”
“In what ways is my love of the Father God conditional?” (From the “3-Minute Retreat” for August 30, 2017.)
We all want to be loved unconditionally. This is a human desire, even a human need.
My wife does an overwhelmingly good job of this most of the time. Even she struggles with it at times. (This says more about me than it says about her. I am not the easiest person in the world to love. I know this: I’ve trying to do it for decades!)
Rumor has it that only God can and does love us unconditionally. (See Romans 5:6-11 for further details.)
But the “3-Minute Retreat” for today introduced a different question: Do I love God unconditionally?
A good question is a burning bush ablaze with the Glory of God. This question is such a bush.
“God, I will love you, IF you meet all my needs.
“God, I will love you, IF you give me everything I want.”
“God, I will love you, IF you will heal me.”
“God, I will love you, IF you will get me out of this mess.”
And so on it goes. I want God and other people to love me unconditionally, but I don’t want to extend the same courtesy to God and other people. And, of course, if I start putting conditions on loving people or God, I am not loving people or God as they are. I’m only loving my own idea of what people and God should be like. In other words, I’m loving (if you can even call it loving) an illusion.
So, how do I love God unconditionally? I don’t know, but I need to figure this out. It seems to me to be a pretty important question.
I don’t have any insights, but I do have some suspicions.
Suspicion # 1: I can begin by realizing how conditional my love for God and other people really it. An awareness of reality is no place to end, but it is a wonderful place to begin.
Suspicion # 2: If I marinate in the unconditional love of God regularly, I might pick up some of that unconditional flavor. “We love God, because he first loved us,” says John (1 John 4:19).
Suspicion # 3: If I practice attempting to give to others and to receive from others unconditional love, I will be in a better position to both receive unconditional love from God, and love God unconditionally in return. Right after 1 John 4:19, John talks about the need for us to love our brothers and sisters. It would appear that being loved by God, loving God, and loving other people are all of one piece.
Suspicion # 4: Unconditional love can be learned. Unconditional love is a muscle that can be conditioned. Unconditional love may originate in Heaven, but it won’t drop on me out of the skies.
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
- DTEB, “Getting Christ and Ourselves Back in Focus” November 11, 2024“Col. 3:1 ¶ If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Col. 3:2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Col. 3:3 For you have died, and your life is hidden […]
- “Search Me!” October 27, 2024“Psa. 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23-24, English Standard Version) I am participating in a Bible study, and this is a prayer […]
- “Christian Speech” October 26, 2024“Eph. 4:29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Foulkes, in his excellent commentary on the Book of Ephesians, writes the following, which I quote at some length: “29. Now the […]
- “God is in the Details” October 11, 2024“The devil is in the details.” (A general saying, often quoted by lawyers, reporters, and negotiators.) “God is in the details.” (Me, almost certainly not original.) “Luke 12:7 Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Jesus) God does not micromanage, but God […]
- “Grandma’s Pump” October 8, 2024When I was a little critter, I would stay at my grandma’s house for a night or two sometimes. I liked this for a lot for many reasons. One thing I liked about staying with her was that Grandma’s house was much more technologically advanced than ours was. For one thing, she had indoor water—sort […]
- “Wearing the #14 Wrong-Side-Out” October 5, 2024Pete Rose, #14, is dead. Many of the old guys with whom I play softball watched him play and appreciated him greatly. I do as well. He was one of the greatest players who ever played the game. Yes, he admitted (eventually) to betting on baseball. But many of us still regard him as one […]
- “Passing Along the Love (and a Link)” October 4, 2024Several years ago, a friend of mine put me onto a daily meditation by Richard Rohr and friends. I don’t read them all the time, but I probably should. They are good! I thought that today’s writing was especially good, and I also figured that this would be a good way to post something. I […]
- “Witnessing Versus Being Witnesses” September 19, 2024“Acts 1:1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, Acts 1:2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. Acts 1:3 He presented himself alive to them after […]
- “A Bathroom Prayer for Hurting Hands” September 11, 2024A week ago Sunday, my hands were hurting so badly at church that I went to the bathroom to run hot water over my hands. Arthritis perhaps, or carpal tunnel, or general orneriness—I don’t know why my hands hurt, but they do. They have for years. So, while I was running hot water over my […]
- “Waiting and Seeking” September 10, 2024“Lam. 3:19 ¶ Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! Lam. 3:20 My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. Lam. 3:21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: Lam. 3:22 ¶ The steadfast love of the LORD […]
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