February 1, 2017 - The British Victorian poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, published her Sonnets from the Portuguese in 1850—a collection of 44 love sonnets. Number 43 is the most famous and opens with one of the most well-known lines in all of love poetry: “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” The sonnet goes on to enumerate powerful ways in which the poet loves the beloved. But there is one way to love—perhaps the most important—that is missing. The poet never says, “I love you unconditionally.”
There are some fundamental questions on love that we all need to ask ourselves if we want to love someone with a true and perfect love. First question is, "Do I love this person so much that I can forgive them in spite of their shortcomings and failures?"
Second, "Is there anything this person can do to make me love them less than I do right now?" Third, "Is there anything that this person can do to make me love them more?" These questions seem pretty simple to answer "yes" to when we think we truly love someone or when love is fresh and new. When they become harder is when we have to actually love those people who have hurt us or when our love grows old. We find it easy to love others when they return that love, but when love is not reciprocated it becomes much harder for us to love back. Unconditional love is impossible for us to achieve on our own. It's just not in our nature.
So now the question that we have to ask ourselves is, "How can I learn to love in that way?" The answer is you can't without help from God. We can only love how we have been loved, and the only person who can love us unconditionally is God Himself. When we surrender our lives to the love of God , He promises us that He will fill us with HIs Spirit. His spirit living in us allows us to love as God loves, unconditionally. 1John 4:7-8," Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." There is nothing that you can do to make God love you more and there is nothing that you can do to make him love you less. He states that in Romans 5:8
"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." This tells us that God loved us enough to die for us even though we didn't love Him at the time.
Only when we allow the Holy Spirit to flow through us can we love others unconditionally and know that same unconditional love. God wants loves you and was willing to die for you on the cross through Jesus. Accept His love and you will be able to reflect that same agape (unconditional) love to everyone you meet .
I'm Just Saying,
Mike Belgard
