I shared a post recently over at RebeccaBender.org about how to choose to be a sacrificial lover. While I’m not great at it, I know how. It’s one thing to know and quite another to do. Can I get an “AMEN”? Yeah, I thought so.
The Top Three Ways You Can Choose Sacrificial Love, by Andrea Stunz
Allow me to preface this article by saying I do not do sacrificial love very well. I will also add that, if you’re honest with yourself, you don’t either. This is precisely why we need Jesus. We need his forgiveness and his redemptive grace to be able to express love that is in any way good.
We’re not good lovers – by nature. We like to think we are but we’re not. We started out broken. Our world is broken. Adam and Eve broke it first and then we continue to break it. We’re so selfish like that.
Does all of that sound hopeless? Hold on!
When we, as Believers, think of sacrificial love we think of Jesus. To sacrificially love others is the essence of Jesus. Jesus IS sacrificial love.To be perfect as Jesus is perfect, to forgive as Jesus forgave, and to love as Christ loves, as we are told to do in scripture, are unattainable accomplishments in our humanness. We are not Jesus. That’s the simple truth of it.
The good news is that Jesus left us with all the power we need to be sacrificial lovers. He left us with the Holy Spirit. Our best hope in loving sacrificially is to rely on the Spirit that lives inside of us. This doesn’t mean we are going to do it perfectly or even very well, it just means that we have access to draw from the Source of sacrificial love Himself.
Built into us is the ability to choose. We can choose God, others, or ourselves. Even better, we can choose ALL three. Let’s consider the top three ways we can choose sacrificial love.
Empty Plate . Full Heart 