All love comes from Jesus. All love comes from Him. Only through Him may we love without burdens.
I realized that much of frustration with fellowship and leadership stemmed from my own sense of responsibility. Responsibility is huge. Well, for me at least. Responsibility defines a lot of who I am. I need responsibility. I need control—the ability to act and set my mind on something, to change something, to do something good and beneficial for myself and for the people around me. I often felt I had the responsibility to be a good servant for God. I felt that God gave us the choice to act to do good. Thus, I felt that it was my responsibility—even when it came to ministry.
Of course, I knew that God was in control. This I understood on a conscious level. Of course, He is sovereign. But I always felt there was an underlying understanding that placed a huge weight upon my own shoulders. While God was in control, I needed to step it up to glorify Him. My sense of individual agency was backed by a sense of individual competency. That perhaps God gifted me in a special way and that He was going to use me for His Kingdom somehow—to do something great for Him. Of course I justified my self worth through a Kingdom mindset, that because I was doing it for him, I could reinsert my self worth as key.
However, I came to realize that it is the disposition of our service to Him that he is concerned. In what way do we come before His throne? What is the essence of our actions? He calls us to humility—not just because we cannot act, nor is it just because we aren't powerful. While these are true, the reason he calls us to humility is because He is ultimately responsible.
He is the source of all life and existence. He is the creator. Not only is He the beginning of all things, but He is the END of all things. He is, ultimately, the reason of all things. When life is done and over, everything is evaluated on the basis of His person. We live to be something of His essence. Why? Because he is the reason for all things. He is not only the Alpha—He is the Omega.
What does this have to do with love? When we serve in the Body we love. We love in Jesus' name. We love, not only because we're Christians, but it is the essence of His love for us. Christ died for us. He died for all our sin. He died for all the vileness and despicableness of our nature. He took that, nailed it to the cross, suffered separation from the Father and conquered it on the third day. Jesus Christ took all that we deserved to take upon ourselves.
So when it comes to love in the Body, we do NOT take responsibility for our own love. We easily become overburdened and frustrated because we feel we are responsible. Instead, we derive a new passion to love because He is responsible. This all comes from Him. Our love for others is HIS fundamental responsibility. This is demonstrated through His sacrifice on the cross and through His victory over the tomb. He took the responsibility. Even to love. He took that responsibility.
I need to stop trying to take that from Him.
"We love because He first loved us." - 1 John 4:19
Comments (1)
I'm a little confused about the last paragraph and not taking that responsiblity from God. I understand how we shouldn't beat ourselves up when we don't meet our own expectation, but having the perspective of loving other not our responsibility?? or do you mean focusing on God's love and realize how amazing that is, and that the source of love is truly from him allows us to love others?