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The Greatest Love of All

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I’ve read and written plenty of love stories, so I guess, it’s safe to say I’m a sucker for them. It might be because of the passion, of the fierceness of those stories that draw me in, making me want to experience the ‘you-and-me-against-the-world’ kind of love. It sounds silly, right? Young love looks fascinating but when I was younger, I see love differently, more of on the selfish side.

There are so many definitions of love and some of them sound cliche.  What we tend to forget is that God is love as written in 1 John 4:8 and not about loving ourselves first. If we think that we should learn to love ourselves first, we would always think that we deserve things, that we are entitled and we have this tendency to walk all over other people. Loving oneself isn’t synonymous to arrogance, but there’s a thin line that separates the two. Actually, we don’t deserve anything, not even God’s grace yet He still gives it to us regardless of what we do or don’t do.

So, what is love? The bible gives us a clear definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

But man sees it the other way and it’s shown in the way we treat other people. I must admit that I find it difficult to serve other people, I tend to become selective on who to help but God reminds me every day that the people I choose to ignore are His people, that He loves them the same way He loves me. Everyday I ask Him to give me the ability to love them too because if I’m going to rely on my own ability, I don’t think I have the heart to do it.

While others struggle to love another, others find it difficult to love God and there are several reasons why. It must be because of the trials and the pain that we go through day in and day out. It must be because they don’t believe that God exists or they see God as a puzzle to be solved. We could give excuses as to why it’s not worth it to love Him but even though we always find a reason to be angry with God, He will always remain faithful to us. He will continue to love us.

Romans 8:38-39

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God demonstrated His love for us by sending Jesus to save us from our sins. I know, this might be difficult to grasp and I’ve heard this line several times before but what we don’t realize is that no matter how many times we apologize for our mistakes, we could never save ourselves from the magnitude of our sins. We are in too deep since things in this world cause us to sin hence the need for a savior. Jesus gave up His life for us, we didn’t ask Him to, yet He did it for our sake. We are living the life He should have lived; He suffered the death that should have been ours.

John 3:16-17

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

John 15:13

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Isaiah 53:5

But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.

God’s banner over us? His love.

I could never write the greatest love story of all time, since God had already written it–in the bible–for all of us. My prayer is that we learn to accept His enduring and encompassing love, so that we get to experience a glimpse of heaven here on earth.

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