A Practical Guide for Transformative Growth Part 3Sample

Love

Our journey to maturity must begin with experiencing God’s love. We cannot know that we are loved fiercely and unconditionally until and unless we have experienced it.

God is undoubtedly the initiator. It is He who loved us first, but our response is the next step. Our requirement? Nothing less than all-love; a love that is all-in with all that we are and all that we have. Time and again, we will need to forsake our ‘other loves’ for our Bridegroom. Jesus made it clear that if we love father or mother or son or daughter more than Him, we are not worthy of Him (Mat 10:37-39).

At the same time, receiving God’s love allows us to love ourselves better. How can we treat ourselves as worthless when God sees us as precious? How can we neglect our hearts, minds, emotions, and physical health when we are fearfully and wonderfully made in His image? Not to mention, a broken and dysfunctional mind, emotions, heart, or body can’t love God with all, now, can it?

All this love that we have been lavished with by God is not solely for our benefit, He wants us to give it away. He wants us to pass on the experience of being loved. Jesus told His disciples to love others as He loved them (John 13:34)

A husband and wife start off courting, then they get engaged, and finally consummate the marriage as the two become one on the wedding night. This, too, is our journey as the church. Love deepens and deepens until it is fully expressed in oneness. The final destination of maturity is unity with our brothers and sisters and with Christ!