God’s Love and Yours

“Love . . always looks for the best.” 1 Corinthians 13:7 MSG.

Love looks for what others will not give the time, or care enough, to see.

My thoughts and comments today are about “God’s love and yours.”

I have found in life that you usually find what you are looking for. If you look for people’s faults, you will find them plentiful, eventually seeing little else. The reality is that we all have enough of those, if someone looks for them. But is that love? In your relationships, look for reasons to love. If you expect others to look past your own peccadilloes, learn to look beyond theirs.

The challenge in a relationship is learning how to keep in view the things you saw at love’s origin. Along the way, you notice more and more distractions that are other than expected. Those are probably smaller than and less than what they begin to appear, but a wrong focus will cause another’s graces to be overshadowed by their glitches. Then comes the temptation to fix others’ shortcomings, much to their displeasure as well as the detriment of your relationship.

When someone seems oblivious to the imperfections of the object of their love, others may say, “Love is blind.” I would argue that love is not blind at all, but simply chooses to overlook what is contrary to that love, and instead, “Love . . always looks for the best.” 1 Corinthians 13:7 MSG. Love looks for what others will not give the time, or care enough, to see.

That alone explains God’s amazing love and grace. “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8. Imagine; God sees your sinfulness yet loves you, in spite of it. In contrast, our humanity waits until love has cause and justification. God’s simple justification for love was the depth of your need and the expanse of His own love. Read Titus 3:4-8/Ephesians 3:17-19 NIV.

Many years ago, Dottie Rambo wrote a touching song of testimony that declared, “He looked beyond my faults and saw my needs.” Jesus’ love has an amazing power to transform a human heart and rescue a ruined life. I love this paraphrase of Paul’s words contrasting our ruined lives with God’s immeasurable grace, “Christ presented Himself for this sacrificial death when we were too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway . . but God put Himself on the line for us offering His Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to Him.” Romans 5:6-8 MSG.

A man of wealth and authority came to Jesus, sincerely seeking the path to eternal life. Read Mark 10:17-22 NIV. Moments later he would walk away because the price seemed too high. Writing Peter’s account of the occasion, Mark observed, “Then Jesus looking at him, loved him.” Mark 10:21 NIV.  Others may have seen his wealth and position and might have received or rejected him on that basis, but Jesus saw so much more. Jesus saw a heart searching for real life, and loved him – even before he made his choice, and even though he chose wrongly. God’s love precedes your choice; today, your choice can release God’s love into your searching heart.

Today, my prayer for you is that you love enough to expect the best of others, and yourself.