I was going to sit here and write a blog about trust and faith because it's been on my mind a lot lately but as I was laying and thinking last night, I remember some words from Pastor Randy a few weeks ago.
We are called to loved one another but what ends up happening is that we start respectfully tolerating each other. We don't love people. We tolerate and put up with them. I'm pretty sure that's not God's idea of love, is it? He doesn't just put up with us. He loves and adores us. He doesn't put conditions on us. He doesn't say He'll love us if we do this and we don't do that. But we do that to others. That's not loving someone unconditionally.
Almost two years ago, God asked me to do something that I wasn't really wanting to do. Well, not all of it anyway. But I decided to step out of my comfort zone and do it. There was a reason He was askign me. I felt like I was heading into this big unknown. And I knew it wouldn't be easy. I knew that there would be some huge struggles in all of it. Believe me, i had no idea what I was getting myself into. But He was asking me to love unconditionally. At the time, I thought I could it. I figured, "I can do this. This won't be too hard." HA HA!
The biggest thing that keeps us from loving unconditionally is FEAR! Yep, I said it. Fear. It's hard to love something or someone we don't know. It's not comfortable. We don't know what to expect. So that fear holds us back from loving others the way we are meant to love.
There's the fear of association. We've all heard "love the sinner, hate the sin" and so that's what we do. So we tend to take a person and take out the things we don't like about them...but is that really loving ALL of them? NO. Jesus didn't care who He hung out with. He hung out with us sinners! Jesus lived out love...it wasn't just a theory to Him. He loved people so much that it didn't matter what others said. That's not what we do. We worry about the gossip. We worry that others will assume the same about us because of who we spend our time with. That's not fair. Not to us. Not to them.
Then there's the fear of responsibility and sacrifice. We'll have to care about these people when we dont' feel like caring about anything. We may have to give up some time. We may have to put their needs above our own. Oh dang! That's asking a lot! It's a great theory but when our day sucks, we don't really feel like giving up our time or putting aside our own problems to be there for someone else.
Fear of rejection. We attempted to love. We gave all of ourselves. And they shot us down. Ouch. It hurt. Bad. So why love again? We don't want to get hurt again. It wasn't really worth it, was it? We protect ourselves. We withdrawal. We stick with what's comfortable and with what we know. We won't be stepping out of our comfort zones again.
The fear of rejection and hurt is what's holding me back the most right now. I take a step forward...thinking that I can do this again...that it's worth it. Then I'm reminded of those things that hurt so bad. Ugh...
Failure. We broke the trust. We weren't there enough. We failed someone. And it's almost just like rejection. We withdrawal again. We stick with what's comfortable because we don't want to hurt someone...we don't want to fail them...especially not again.
The truth is though...we will always find something we're afraid of. We will always find something that holds us back from loving someone unconditionally. So take a few minutes and write down what you're afraid of...what's holding you back. Write it ALL down. Lay it out there. Then ask God to cast out these fears. Ask Him to help you to love others unconditionally.
If you'd like to share things that hold you back, please leave a comment. I'm sure we'd all love to know that we're not the only ones that are afraid...
We are called to loved one another but what ends up happening is that we start respectfully tolerating each other. We don't love people. We tolerate and put up with them. I'm pretty sure that's not God's idea of love, is it? He doesn't just put up with us. He loves and adores us. He doesn't put conditions on us. He doesn't say He'll love us if we do this and we don't do that. But we do that to others. That's not loving someone unconditionally.
Almost two years ago, God asked me to do something that I wasn't really wanting to do. Well, not all of it anyway. But I decided to step out of my comfort zone and do it. There was a reason He was askign me. I felt like I was heading into this big unknown. And I knew it wouldn't be easy. I knew that there would be some huge struggles in all of it. Believe me, i had no idea what I was getting myself into. But He was asking me to love unconditionally. At the time, I thought I could it. I figured, "I can do this. This won't be too hard." HA HA!
The biggest thing that keeps us from loving unconditionally is FEAR! Yep, I said it. Fear. It's hard to love something or someone we don't know. It's not comfortable. We don't know what to expect. So that fear holds us back from loving others the way we are meant to love.
There's the fear of association. We've all heard "love the sinner, hate the sin" and so that's what we do. So we tend to take a person and take out the things we don't like about them...but is that really loving ALL of them? NO. Jesus didn't care who He hung out with. He hung out with us sinners! Jesus lived out love...it wasn't just a theory to Him. He loved people so much that it didn't matter what others said. That's not what we do. We worry about the gossip. We worry that others will assume the same about us because of who we spend our time with. That's not fair. Not to us. Not to them.
Then there's the fear of responsibility and sacrifice. We'll have to care about these people when we dont' feel like caring about anything. We may have to give up some time. We may have to put their needs above our own. Oh dang! That's asking a lot! It's a great theory but when our day sucks, we don't really feel like giving up our time or putting aside our own problems to be there for someone else.
Fear of rejection. We attempted to love. We gave all of ourselves. And they shot us down. Ouch. It hurt. Bad. So why love again? We don't want to get hurt again. It wasn't really worth it, was it? We protect ourselves. We withdrawal. We stick with what's comfortable and with what we know. We won't be stepping out of our comfort zones again.
The fear of rejection and hurt is what's holding me back the most right now. I take a step forward...thinking that I can do this again...that it's worth it. Then I'm reminded of those things that hurt so bad. Ugh...
Failure. We broke the trust. We weren't there enough. We failed someone. And it's almost just like rejection. We withdrawal again. We stick with what's comfortable because we don't want to hurt someone...we don't want to fail them...especially not again.
The truth is though...we will always find something we're afraid of. We will always find something that holds us back from loving someone unconditionally. So take a few minutes and write down what you're afraid of...what's holding you back. Write it ALL down. Lay it out there. Then ask God to cast out these fears. Ask Him to help you to love others unconditionally.
If you'd like to share things that hold you back, please leave a comment. I'm sure we'd all love to know that we're not the only ones that are afraid...
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