I've been pondering the issue of love while preparing for this weekend's message on "Freedom from unhealthy relational patterns." Everybody's looking for love, everybody needs it, everybody's been hurt while looking for it, and we all do silly things that keep us from experiencing it. What a mess...
What I'm finding is that love can't happen when we're focused on ourselves. (I know that's brilliant.) And yet, when we get hurt that is exactly where we turn. So what do we do?
Simply, we keep turning to Jesus and allowing Him to direct us into loving responses. We do that by talking to Him, listening to Him, worshiping Him, and responding to Him. We put to death the natural inclinations to do the unloving thing.
A friend of mine in England pulled up to a stop sign only to have a guy on his bike start cursing at him. He leaned out of the window and said "bless you my brother." As you can imagine the guy went into shock. BTW, saying that would be quite unnatural for me. But that is exactly the point...
In life and our most meaningful relationships we get into bad habits of doing what we naturally do - anger, attack, defensiveness, justification, withdrawal, unforgiveness, bitterness, etc. Let's be honest: loving isn't easy and doesn't always come natural. But God is in the business of loving and His love can and does transform us. That is what freedom is all about.
Join us this weekend as we explore freedom from unhealthy relational patterns and invite Him to bring freedom!
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