What If We Did?

Guest author and my friend, Ralinda Fenton. 
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This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
John 15:12-14 NKJV

This is part of my devotion this morning. It reminded me how I need to love regardless of the response. I want to give love, whether it’s deserved or not. After all, look what Christ did for me - a broken mistake-making woman.

But what if we made it our mission? Instead of getting even, we could commit our hearts to forgiveness and offering a true clean slate to another? What if, when we feel slighted or excluded from a situation, we do not hold tight to bitterness or fear and still offer our love freely?

What if it stopped being about everything we receive and became about what we can give - regardless of the response, the rejection, the lack of reciprocation, or reassurance? It would confuse others and lead them right to this thought: “Why do they give love that I have not deserved?” Herein lies the perfect opportunity for our hearts to exclaim, “Jesus!” His eternal hope is the reason we can love so freely in return, knowing that He will work as He sees fit.

Wouldn’t that be incredible? To not be scared to be the people who love more, forgive freely, give grace abundantly, and walk in a confidence that stems from the ever-flowing love of Jesus? That would be the Gospel.

Our hearts are fragile. We take things personally. We are scared to let in others once we’ve been wronged. We have been taught by the world to only give what we receive—they must be worthy.

But Jesus calls us to love others out of a heart that is fully and recklessly loved by Him. This does not mean our emotions become absent and our pain won’t be felt; it just means that when those things do happen, we can remind ourselves we’re already accepted and abundantly loved by our Creator. It is in this truth that we no longer crave and depend on the reassurance of this world, and we begin to look like people of hope.