I love to love but we are often not easy to love.
At first, I loved because I believed we are one.
I loved my best which took me out of my way.
I loved with my all which to them, didn’t mean a lot:
Disappointment awoke discouragement and I fell
But I landed at my Abba’s feet. He picked me up
He raised me to love them because they are His.
Thus, I learned to love the best with God’s love
And was never again discouraged by responses
Because the love I gave was not mine but God’s
Thus, it came easier to me; thus, I served it better
Without expectations from any other but God.
© Odemene, G. C., 2020, Out of the Ashes Arise!

God is teaching us to accept and embrace others who are not like us and who may not love us like He accepts and embraces us. But to do that, we must first learn to accept and enjoy the riches of His love toward us. It is only when we are satisfied in His lavish love that we can love others without minding how they look upon our loving. God does not call us to love our way, with our love, which is weak at its best, tainted with interests, and often not aligned with His purpose.

I said one day, “Abba, I don’t want to love someone who doesn’t love me.” God responded, “Beloved, you truly can’t. They didn’t ask for your love. I asked you to love them. And I give you My love to give them. Can you do just that please and then trust Me for your reward?” The reward, the result, the response, projected through expectations, are the things that knock the engine of our love. To love like God, we must look beyond our dreams and desires; our doubts and fears; our personal, gospel or global interests or however we tag those subtle expectations. We must reach to love them like we have been loved by Abba, seeking to touch them where and how we would love to be reached and touched.

Love is not how we feel. Love is what we do in spite of how it feels. God’s love tailors our expectations to freely receive and offer love without terms that favor our conditions, and without fear of disappointment, rejection, and judgment. God’s love is not wishy-washy. It is not deceptive, and it does not lie or fool us into believing that we will be loved as we love. Rather, God’s love prepares our hearts with the realities of disappointments, rejection, and pains, and fills it with boundless possibilities to love beyond our capabilities, despite the hurdles in the path of our intention to love like God.

You would think that loving others would be easy because of the way God prepares our hearts and ways. It is not. Although loving others in the way that God commands us to is risky, it is the most beneficial way to love others. The risk does not make us fearful. In fact, God’s love makes us brave in loving. It enables us to love freely, wholly, and richly, and to keep loving no matter the outcomes. It is not fazed by how others will respond. Instead, God’s love in us banishes fear that tends to hold us back so we can brave the risk by His grace and love in spite of ourselves and them. We are to love, unlimited by limiting conditions within and around us.

Excerpt from the book: Out of the Ashes Arise: Surmounting Disappointments.

You can order a copy on amazon here Out of the Ashes Arise! Surmounting Disappointments and re-inject fresh energy to flagging hope for the desperate days we live in.
Please order more copies as gifts for friends and loved ones, we all need a lift in these down times and that is what “Out of the Ashes Arise!”  will do for every reader.

Blessings
Always
Glory!

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