A 'Cross' kind of love

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​A typical definition of what love brings might be, “Love brings me happiness, fulfilment, meaning, and a purpose for living…” There is nothing wrong with any of these attributes of love. Nothing.

But God’s definition of what love brings, particularly in our relationships, runs deeper than that. First and foremost, God describes a love that’s not cantered on the self or the will, but toward either side of itself — a love that also points to heaven. That means this kind of love is shaped like a cross.
 
A ‘cross’ kind of love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” — it’s a self-sacrificing kind of love that “never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:7-8a NKJV)

Blessed is the man or woman, boy or girl, who has experienced that kind of love. It is a love that comes from God through the people who are possessed by Him.

Do our lives confess we are possessed by Him?
 
Heaven knows it’s only God who helps us understand who we are in the flesh and what we’ve done to offend Him. Only God can transform us through the redeeming love of Christ, His Son. Only then can we administer the kind of grace that looks past other people’s sins and grants the same kind of enduring love to others. It is a ‘cross’ kind of love that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” — a self-sacrificing kind of love from Jesus Christ that never fails.

​Toni Babcock
Minnesota, USA - info@grace-lines.net