Day 10,The Love Dare: Love Is Unconditional

 Love Is Unconditional

God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

Today’s Dare: Do something unexpected and out of the ordinary for someone today to show your unconditional love. Reach out to someone, forgive someone, lay down your life for someone as the Holy Spirit leads you and see how He will change your life, your heart, and the hearts of those around you.

This is one of those days that The Love Dare has a lot to say. . . and that’s good because this is foundational information. I believe that loving unconditionally is something that is easier to do if you grew up with it, but something that we all need to do better. And since it is so close to the heart of God I believe that He will help us every step of the way in our feeble attempts . . . it’s that important to Him.

Love is unconditional. What is it you love about your spouse, your friends, your family? Is it the way your significant other looks or smells? Is it the way your friends listen to you? Is it the things your family does for you?  What if all of the things that you love about the people in your life stop happening? What if your significant other loses his good looks or his wit and charm to a disease? What if your friends are just too busy to listen to you? What if your family just up and decides to stop doing things for you?  Can you still love them anyway?

That is the challenge of Christian love:  loving anyway, loving irrespective of , loving despite of.  Christian love is loving “because He first loved me,” and understanding that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” showing us the ultimate love. And then walking out that understanding in our daily lives by loving others, sacrificing for them, providing for them, giving to them, despite how they treat us. It is the acknowledgement that we never have and never will be able to deserve God’s love– He just gives it to us freely! Therefore, how can we withhold that same pure love from others based on what they deserve? We can’t without being total hypocrites.

Most times we are surrounded by family who know exactly how to try our patience more than most, let’s not give people what we think they “deserve.” Let’s free ourselves from the bondage of judging others and just love unconditionally, knowing that our reward will be that we are an ingredient in the Almighty God’s happiness. (And what could be more awesome than the thought that WE could make the infinite God happy based on the small acts of obedience and sacrifice that we do?!) John 15:13 says “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Let’s lay it all down today and sacrifice for our friends, showing them what is really the greatest love of all.

The only way love can last a lifetime is if it’s unconditional.  The truth is this: love is not determined by the one being loved but rather by the one choosing to love.

In every relationship, perfect or unconditional love is possible and yes, it does exist.

We humans can strive for perfect love, but we are imperfect people. These imperfections makes the possibility of a total and complete unconditionally-accepting relationship impossible except through Christ.

Unconditional love is hard to explain. It’s something that has to be understood and experienced. If you can give up on your wants and yet feel happier, just watching someone else happy, then that’s unconditional love.

If you can selflessly love someone else, not to get something back in return, but to genuinely make someone else happy, that’s unconditional love.

If that isn't unconditional love, what is?!

Sometimes, heartbreaking and unforgivable things can happen in our lives which will test the depth of unconditional love in our hearts. For example, if you are a man and your wife commits adultery with another man, how will you react the very first moment you hear her confess to you? If you forgive her, how will you react if she repeatedly disrespects you? The story of the Prophet Hosea and Gomer in the Bible is indeed a story of unconditional love in marriage.

Lately I have come to realize that I do not need to have people by my side to love them. I do not need to have them even like me, or be friends with them to love them. Even when they hate me, or do not want to have any contact with me, even then I need to still continue to love them and live for them.