Loving from a place of overflow...



I was reading an article by Mastin Kipp this morning about what it truly means to love someone...it seems like an important topic.







At its core, the message of the author was this:



To love someone is to let them go...to give them freedom...to allow them the privilege to love or not to love, with no coercion or manipulation.



And then I started thinking about God, and how God loves humankind...in Christian circles, we speak often of God's love...and among theologians, there is much debate and disagreement about the balance between God's love and man's free will...and what all of these things mean to the question of salvation and our destiny in the afterlife...



The Bible says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son..." If you put any weight in the authority of the Christian scriptures as God's means of revealing himself to mankind, you might have to conclude that God loves everyone...not just a select few...I believe that he does.



And what of the freedom? Do you suppose the principle of "letting go" applies to the love of God? The article I read this morning says this about love:



"When you love someone, it's always from a place of overflow rather than lack."



I found this statement striking. As a human, I find it difficult to always operate out of a place of "overflow." Truthfully, I very often feel as if I'm operating from a place of lack...but this is never the case with God. He never operates from lack, and he has no need (as we understand need) of anything from us...he does not require our love, nor does he coerce love from us. He sets us on the path of freedom, and invites us into loving relationship with him.



So, whether in family, or romance, or even in our individual relationships with God, something about love is always true - no one feels loved when they are controlled or manipulated. Love is only love when it is offered freely, out of one's own desire to love.



In short, when we love from a place of overflow, we learn that love can never be taken from another, but only offered...

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