All throughout the Bible, God shows us examples of how He will exchange one thing for another. Our obedience for His blessings. Our brokenness for His wholeness. Our sins for His forgiveness. Our life for His death. Our acceptance of Jesus for eternity with God in Heaven.
As I pondered “exchanges” in the Bible, it became quite evident to me that all of these exchanges are pretty lopsided. He always gives so much more to us than He asks from us. Suddenly, my thoughts fell upon the vastness of His love. Talk about lopsided.
Then I prayed, “God, the way You love us, it’s so amazing. It is without hesitation, without reservation, without limits of any kind. And You know us better than any other. You know that we’ll never be able to love You the way You love us. You know that, even on our best day, we will never be able to love You back in the all-encompassing, perfect way that You love us. Yet You love us still, withholding nothing.
God, I just want to love You the way you deserve to be loved. How sad it is that You’ll never be loved by Your beloved in same capacity that You love us. And why do You love us so much? We don’t deserve any of it; not one bit. Yet you adore us. You keep trying to help us find our way. You keep forgiving us and encouraging us and letting us come back, time and again, no matter how many times we fail.”
My heart cries at this revelation. How can we ever show God our love in a way that is even close to the way He loves us?! Then I thought of something my mother always used to say, “Love me, love my kids.”
Let everything you do be done in love (true love to God and man as inspired by God’s love for us). – 1 Corinthians 16: 14 (AMP)
There are so many of us in marriage relationships that put all these parameters around our love for our spouses. If they ever do “this,” that’ll be it. I can forgive anything but “that.” As human beings in a fallen world, we love so conditionally. We tend to forget all that we loved about a person the instant that person hurts us. We so easily brush people to the side and let go of relationships because of an offense.
But who of us is perfect? Who of us can “cast the first stone?” Who has never needed the forgiveness of another? Who of us loves the way God does? We all fall short.
Still, I want to try. If God gives me nothing else in this lifetime, He has given me the greatest blessing of all – His undying, unwavering, unfaltering, unconditional love. And my job is to give that love back to Him through freely offering it to others, to the best of my ability, in a way that best reflects God’s love. I am to love deeply. I am to be committed to the people in my life. When an offense comes, I am to forgive quickly and completely. There is no other way. It’s all part of the exchange.
God loves us first. He tells us to love one another as we love ourselves. As we love others, it doesn’t have so much to do with the person as it does God. It makes Him feel loved when we love his children. When we strive to be like Him, when we reflect His goodness and mercy to others, it’s as if we’re doing it to Him.
He will answer them, “I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me—you failed to do it to me.” – Matthew 25:45 (MSG)
So when someone is being ugly, love them still. When someone hurts your feelings, assume they didn’t mean to. Even if a relationship is abusive, for example, and you have to relinquish it, walk away in love. You don’t have to let yourself be continually hurt by another person, but, when you let go, really let go. Let no barrier remain between you and the love you once had for that person.
May the Lord direct your hearts into [realizing and showing] the love of God and into the steadfastness and patience of Christ and in waiting for His return. – 2 Thessalonians 3: 5
No, it’s still not perfect love. It’s not like the love that is so generously given to us; it’s not the love return that God deserves, and it never will be in this broken world…but it’s a start.
Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. – 1 Corinthians 13: 7 (AMP)
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