Integrity- People of God

Great love is willing to deny self and will sacrifice a fleeting moment of pleasure for love that honors, respects and has a lasting and eternal weight of glory. It is great love that is able to display love that is unrequited, a love that sacrifices and does not have to be reciprocated nor demand that their love to be returned in some act or demonstration. Great love is a form of God’s unconditional love that is offered to all mankind regardless of their willingness to accept and it stands true even in the face of rejection. Christ died for all mankind, not just the righteous and those who would receive His love, but for those who would refuse His love also. 

2 Corinthians 4:17 For our light affliction, which s but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. NKJ

Love is both profound and a mystery.  Love originated with God and is a gift God has given to mankind, that we may know and experience His love for us through the various relationships that we have.   Love is a trait of God’s Character that was given to humanity and yet this world will say, God does not want us to love or be loved. Yet it was God who gave us the ability to love in so many different forms and relationships, be it with parents, siblings, children, family, friends or community.  In these different relationships we are able to express love and to receive love and they all are gifts from God. It is through love that we are able to express and experience His Love for us.

Have you ever experienced a love so profound, so overwhelming that you are willing to take on the most difficult problems and the hardest of challenges to secure, provide and protect the one you love and to keep them safe? Great love is willing to make sacrifices because of the relationship and the affection it has for the beloved.   It was God who loved us so deeply, so profoundly and so intently that He gave His Son Jesus as an expression of the great love He has for us.  

Every expression of love, every touch, word expressed or deed done all originated in God. It is awesome to think that in every generation, culture and walk of life there is a sense and ability to love, to express love, to see and know the feeling of love. This ability to give love and receive love was given to all humanity by a loving God. However, the enemy has perverted God’s love and beguiled mankind into thinking God is against their love and that they are not loved by God. 

The Bible says, great love will sacrifice and lay down its life for a friend and great love comes through the understanding of God and His word.  We can understand love in natural relationships such as those between spouses and of parent-child relationship and can grasp the willingness for one to lay down their life for their beloved.  It is rare, but some people are willing to die for a good person, king and country but for most of us the thought of laying down our lives for others is inconceivable.  

Romans 5:7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 

John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down one’s life for his friend. NKJ

This fallen world’s view of love is self-centered, self-absorbed and is about self-gratification and will say, God is trying to keep them from having fun and enjoying themselves.  Love is a powerful thing and mishandled it can cause hurt and devastation and for this reason God gives us direction and a choice.  People are free to make their own choices but they are not free to choose the consequences or the results of those choices.  Often people go into situations without thinking things through to the end results or the effects and outcome of their actions. 

We were created to be an expression of God’s great love in the earth and He has given us the awesome power to show great, unrequited love through the power of the Holy Spirit.  The enemy has lied and beguiled people into go after the pleasures of sin, which is for a season, and then often ends in destruction.  It is in the aftermath of broken relationships, when hearts and lives are torn apart that we can see the wisdom of God in setting boundaries and giving us instructions to protect those in love. 

Hebrews 11:24-26 By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he looked to the reward. NKJ

A loving God gave humanity the ability to love so we may have a better understanding His love for us. It is God through the Holy Spirit that gives us the ability to display great and unconditional. 

Romans 5:8 For when we were without strength, in due lime Christ died for the ungodly. NKJ