John 3:16 (Amplified) says, "For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He (even) gave up His Only Begotten (unique) Son; so that whoever believes in (trusts in, cling to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life."
This scripture demonstrates to us the true attitude and faith in Love. Even before anyone knew or believed in the Savior, Love did not hold anything back, but gave it all at the cross. There was no way of knowing if this great Love would work or how many (if any) would believe. Love fearlessly and openly gave all He had to deliver those who were outside of God.
There remains the chance that some will not believe, but it's not because Love didn't come, but because they won't receive love. No matter how much lobe has given itself, if we don't allow it to be received in our lives, then we will remain lost. Many of us only allow a portion of this great to be manifest in our lives. We believe that God loves us and that we will go to heaven when we die, but we don't allow heaven to manifest in our lives while we're here.
No matter how great the offer, Love must be responded to or it won't work in our lives. God didn't hold back anything when He sent Jesus. We, though, hold back and are afraid to trust this love. God didn't send only a portion of His love, but He sent all of His love in and through Jesus.
Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, just hours before His arrest, trial and crucifixion, in John 17:23 (Amplified) saying, "I in them and You in Me; in order that they may become one and perfectly united; that the world may know and (definitely) recognize that You sent Me and that You have loved them (even) as You have loved Me."
God's love is limitless, but we have to allow ourselves to receive and respond to this love. Unless we learn to trust in His love for us, we will never know the power of that great love on this side of heaven. God won't love us any more after we get to heaven than He does presently. He loved us like He loves Jesus even before we were saved and were at our worst.
I've wondered about whether God loves the saved person more than He does the sinner. Of course, He loves us all the same. The same great love that we enjoy now from God, is the same love that saved us.
God gave us (by His love) all we will ever need throughout eternity, but we must not be afraid to love Him back. We've held back much of His power and fellowship in our lives because we've been afraid to return His love.
Loving God or anyone else fully requires a form of selflessness to the fullest. Ephesians 5:25 (Amplified) says, "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her." This kind of love can only come when we allow God to love and live through us. Jesus didn't hold anything back when He gave Himself for us. He didn't think about who was right or wrong and who would accept or reject Him. He gave Himself in love when there wasn't one, single Christian alive on this planet. Love wasn't afraid to give Himself first and fully.
We want to wait and see if the other person will respond to or be respective to our love before we give it. We want to see if we can trust them with our very heart before we will give it. We want to see if they are worthy of our love before we give it. And, we want to see if they are trustworthy of loving. If God had waited to see if we would return His love before He gave His love, then we'd still be lost. We've tried trusting God in small increments. We trust Him with the "easy stuff" first and fail to realize that one thing is just as "easy" for Him as another. It's not hard for God to do it, it's hard for us to trust Him for it.
We want to trust God and love Him like He loves us, yet we're more aware of our failures than we are of His love. If God loved us enough to die in our place when we were still sinners, then is it too difficult to believe He loves us now in our new born again state? 1John 4:10-11 (Amplified) says, "In this is love; not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins." Verse 11 says, "Beloved, if God loved us so (very much); we also ought to love one another."
We should have to wait for the other person to prove himself "worthy" of our love, but by loving, prove ourselves worthy of the love that was given us and give it to them. Jesus told us to, "Love one another, as He has loved us." Before we were saved, before we believed, before we knew Him and before we were forgiven, God loved us. He didn't wait to see if we would even thank Him for it, He just loved us. Love trusted us even when we weren't trustworthy. Love always wants to believe the best in everyone. Throughout our lives, most of us have known others who will take advantage of our love or use it as a weapon against us. We've also known others who won't. Love makes us vulnerable when we open up, but we're no good at all if we don't do this. We're so afraid of being hurt or disappointed that we don't ever get to witness what love can do.
You are the only power on this earth that can stop the power of love in your life. God won't stop it and nobody else can stop it., only you can do that. God doesn't love any person more than another, but it's that one person receives more of His love than another. It's equally available to all who will believe. Some people only believe His love for their salvation and their getting to heaven one day, while others believe to a greater depth. Both persons are equally loved by God and the equality of God's gift of love is the same for both. One person is afraid to love beyond going to heaven and another person is not afraid to love to a further degree.
This love wants to manifest fully in our live so the whole world can see it. Fear prevents us from revieving love to the point of boldness and strength.
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