What’s LOVE got to do with it? Part 3: Living In the Overflow

When I became a Christian at 24 and began studying God's Word, I wondered how it could be possible to love God with all my heart and still love others as He tells us to. I couldn’t see how it was possible to love others without giving up part of my heart in the process.

What I didn't understand is that God's love would change everything I knew about love. As always, His way of doing things is nothing like the world's ways.

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us." 1 John 3:16

The world doesn't understand God’s love. Many refuse to try and understand it because they like the freedom to define what love is for themselves. It's no different than wanting earthly control over any other area of our life — but God's love is different from anything else we will ever experience. His love is the purest form of love we will ever know. It’s an unselfish, “I gave my life for you” kind of love, full of mercy and grace.

Jesus Christ is God's love in human form, unhindered by the sin of this fallen world — and He showed us the power of that love on the cross.

This is the love our souls long to feel and know. The perfect, safe, all encompassing, eternal love that we were created to live in and reflect. It can't be found in earthly things or other people, it will only be found through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

I didn’t fully understand unconditional love until I held my first child after she was born. I knew in that moment I would give my life to protect her. I loved her more than I ever thought possible.

When I was pregnant with my second child, I didn't see how I could love another child as much as I did the first, but I did. And then the third as well. It's hard for me to imagine a love greater than the love I feel for my children. But God.

God's love for us is so unfathomable that He was willing to send His only Son to die for the sins of mankind. I can't imagine loving anyone on earth enough that I would be willing to give the life of my child for them, especially if I knew they would never love me in return or perhaps tell me they love me yet never care enough to get to know me.

Perhaps the most amazing thing of all is that Jesus willingly bore all of the pain and suffering we deserve. He took every bit of it to the cross on our behalf and willingly laid down his life for you and I — and in the midst of His agony, while he hung dying on that cross, He cried out to His Father to forgive those who had beaten Him and hung Him there to die.

What kind of love is this?

That level of sacrifice, that kind of forgiveness, would take an indescribable magnitude of love we can't humanly comprehend.

God’s perfect love was poured out for every one of us that day.

When we choose to place our faith in Jesus Christ and begin growing in our knowledge of His Word and intentionally living out our faith, He fills us with His love so completely that it begins to overflow from our life into the lives of those around us.

When we are living in the overflow of His perfect love for us — that is when our striving to love others in our own ability ends and the outpouring of His love through us begins.

It is His love that enables us to see and love others the way He sees and loves them. He gives us a kind of love that’s not natural for most of us, full of mercy and grace. It's an unselfish love that changes our purpose and the dynamics of our relationships, because we want others to experience His love too.

Living in the overflow of God’s perfect love is also where a heart for the lost is cultivated. Having a heart to see others come to faith in Jesus Christ is a product of His love not only changing the way we love, but also who we love.

I have learned that loving God with all my heart doesn't take my love away from others, it gives me the ability to love them even more — more than I ever thought possible.

As we grow in our knowledge of who He is, seeking to love Him with all our heart, we will find that abundant life He came to give us —lived in the overflow of His perfect love.

To know Jesus is to know the power of perfect love.

To love Jesus with all our heart is to live in the power of His perfect love, unhindered.

Lord, your word tells me that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation are able to separate me from your love. Please help me to love you more fully and make growing in my relationship with you my priority, so that I can experience the abundant life you came to give me — a life lived in the overflow of your love for me. Thank you for your grace and mercy. Thank you for loving me so perfectly!

"Whoever keeps his word, truly in him the love of God is made complete. This is how we know we are in him: The one who says he remains in him should walk just as he walked." 1 John 2:5–6 (CSB)