Today we shift to the second part of our time – and talk about loving completely. Corrie Ten Boom said this: “The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation”. How do you measure your life? How do you measure impact? The first line in the chapter today is something I say all the time: “when all is said and done, relationships are all that really matter”. I believe that. I know it to be true. But I struggle to make time to invest properly in them even knowing that. God created us to be in relationship. It all started in the garden when man was created – to be in relationship with Him. God went further and created woman to allow man to be in relationship in two ways – vertically with Him and horizontally with others. So this relationship thing is God’s idea from the beginning and the very basis for our creation. It is the essence of life.
So we is it so hard for us to spend time investing in relationships, or am I the only one who struggles with this. A lot of us, and I am including myself here, value relationships but fail to expend the time or energy to really take them to the next level. We were designed for intimacy with God and others but we don’t allow it to happen because of our schedules and selfish focus. Love can’t be bought – but it does carry a price – sacrifice. Jesus showed us the ultimate measure of love when He gave Himself for us on the Cross. If you want to know what real love is – just look at the cross. Then you can know you really understand if you are loving others. Paul tells us in Ephesians that he wanted us to be able to grasp “how wide and deep and long and high is the love of Christ”. If we can really understand the love that Jesus had for us – if we can get a glimpse of just how much God sacrificed for us – we can start to understand how to really love others. I have a lot to learn about love. I still don’t comprehend how much God loves me. If I could grasp that, it would change everything about the way I surrender my life to Him and the things I would do each day. We need to spend some time considering God’s love. “For God so loved the world that He gave……” Love is core to our beings, and the center of any relationship. We need to learn this and get our hearts right!
Posted by asorensen 
