Everyone seeks to give or receive the type of love that wins hearts. Whether it’s a man trying to prove to a woman that he possesses the love that can win her heart, or a woman on the receiving end wondering if he can truly measure up. The pursuit of safety in love is expressed in everything. I’m so grateful that we serve a God who is so awesome that even when we desire to do something with good intentions but still do it wrong, He is gracious and patient enough to show us how to get it right. For example, as Christians, especially as new converts, we have all that fire for Jesus, and all we want to do, hopefully, is to win souls for Christ. We want to win people’s hearts by telling them about the Good News and even trying to threaten their lives with the Gospel sometimes. We are all struggling in that area, and I pray that the Holy Spirit helps us understand the love it takes to win souls for Christ. Nevertheless, let us first consider the type of love we often have toward God, self, and others.
Our love towards God, self, and others
I wish I could tell you when we face challenges because of our faith, our first response is that firing love “all-in-heart and mind” type of love for Jesus. Unfortunately, it is rarely the case. As much as we shout and talk about Him, our initial love response due to persecution for His name’s sake is usually a transactional one until He draws us near Him. The thing is, everything must start with God. In Matthew 22:37-39, Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” And then He said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” He didn’t say to love ourselves and our neighbors, but to love God first. Therefore, if our love for God is transactional, there is no doubt that our love toward ourselves and others is anything different. And what does that look like? If we want to be honest, we love to praise God or be on fire for Him when things are going well and as planned. However, most of us, as soon as things shift, our fire goes down to 50%. And if it’s a major shift, our fire for Jesus is nowhere to be found. This also explains why, when we achieve something great in life, we pat ourselves on the back and celebrate. However, when was the last time we celebrated and encouraged ourselves for something that didn’t go as expected? Instead, we blame ourselves for that specific thing and everything else that didn’t go well decades ago. This also explains why when we experience oppositions in life, betrayal, or any unpleasant circumstance, we are mad at God, others, ourselves, and the poor cat that doesn’t know what we are talking about and wasn’t even there when the thing happened. Unfortunately, this type of transactional love isn’t attractive, and it isn’t the type that wins hearts.
Now, let’s consider God’s love toward us
I must say that I have never seen anyone’s reputation being so tarnished as God’s. And I have never seen anyone as cool, calm, and collected about His tarnished reputation as God. He has a way of dealing with things, and mastering His emotions to the point it seems as if God doesn’t feel anything. Honestly, it was hard for me to comprehend that serving God requires that I get out of my feelings until He gave me His perspective. For instance, if God were like us by being in His feelings 24/7 concerning our disobedience to Him, He wouldn’t even send the Holy Spirit to Mary. God operates differently. Isn’t it ironic that the very thing the enemy uses against God is the very thing He uses to draw us to Him? The enemy’s agenda for our lives has one purpose and one purpose only, and that is for you and me to believe that God doesn’t love us, or that God might love somebody else but not us. And the devil makes sure he camouflages evidence for us to believe his lies because the truth is we will never pray to, listen to, accept, trust, and even receive from someone who doesn’t love us. However, have you ever heard people say things like: God’s love has drawn me to Him, His love for me changed my heart, if it wasn’t for the love of God, or God’s love won my heart. Why is that? It’s because God is always in the business of promoting the kind of love that wins hearts. For us who accepted Jesus, let’s think about what it took for God to win our hearts. No matter how much we tried to run away from Him, how disobedient, how ungrateful, and the mistakes we’ve made. Yet, He kept showing up, fighting, blessing, caring, and showering us with His love. God has preserved our lives even when we didn’t want to give Him our Hallelujahs, which belong to Him. And that is why the first thing God does when He draws us to Him is to open our eyes to His love for us, and that’s exactly what the devil doesn’t want. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. God didn’t have many other begotten sons in heaven when He sent Jesus, but He gave His only Son, expecting nothing in return, what greater expression of love is there than this?
Now, let’s consider what type of love wins hearts as it relates to us
The type of love that wins hearts is the love Jesus Himself came to this earth to demonstrate. And when we think about it, Jesus demonstrated love more than He spoke about it, so He is always our point of reference. He showed us the type of love that captivates hearts, not pushes them away. It is an unselfish and non-transactional love. No manipulation is required when giving and receiving this love because it is a free service. Please allow me to elaborate on the free service part, and since Jesus is our model, let’s point back to Him.
Like many of us, when I see the words free service, the first thing that comes to mind is “Here we go again, I’m about to set myself up for manipulation.” However, Jesus, in His grace, helped me understand it, and I thank Him for that. For example, Jesus demonstrated love by healing the sick, casting out demons, turning water into wine, multiplying bread and fish, suffering on the cross, and even dying. He didn’t ask for a credit card number, money order, cash, or check. He served because He wanted to give Himself to service. On the other hand, that same Jesus went to a city, and the people there were asking Him for more signs, and Jesus’ response to them was what we would say in our informal term: “You ain’t getting none,” so He didn’t perform the signs. Also, while John the Baptist was in prison, he sent his disciples to Jesus, who sent John’s disciples back to him with answers that John probably didn’t want to hear at that moment. It was that same Jesus who was sent to one of the rulers, Herod, who asked Him to do what He’s been doing to prove Himself as King, but Jesus refused. And why is that? It’s because Jesus knew how to give free service without allowing Himself to be intimidated or manipulated by others. After all, He knew when to say “No.”
You may be wondering how this relates to you. So, I will use another example. If I have an apple and I willingly give it to someone, that can be considered a free act of service. However, if I regret giving it to the person, it’s no longer a free service because it’s done half-heartedly. In that case, it would have been better if I had given half of that apple with all my heart or nothing at all. And if I feel I must give it because I’m intimidated by the person, it’s no longer a free service; it becomes manipulation. The moment I think I must give my apple to that person because of what he/she may think of me if I don’t, it becomes people pleasing, which defeats the purpose. It is about serving with a loving and joyful heart, expecting nothing in return because it’s free.
The type of love that wins is the one that is willing to love by helping, giving, encouraging, and praying for others, even if your uncommon love may be overlooked or the results of it may seem ineffective. It might look like your efforts are not moving hearts, but the truth is, it is working; otherwise, Jesus would not have come to demonstrate and prescribe such love. Has God ever allowed you to go through an experience, and it took you years to finally understand the lesson from that experience, but once you got it, it changed your whole perspective and sticks with you for the rest of your life? So, we, too, must be patient and willing to sow in faith. We sow in faith because we believe that down the road, the seed of love planted will grow. We may not be the ones watering that seed, but we believe it will eventually produce fruit in due season; therefore, it wins.
God Bless You, Dear Friends!
SCRIPTURES
“The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of His unfailing love.” Psalm 33:5
“In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus Himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Acts 20:35
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