1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian LOVE | Page 5

whole heart and walk in a close, daily relationship with Him, the things that would have
been considered to be impossible are found to be possible through the power of the
indwelling Holy Spirit.
I do not ever want to belittle the hurts that come through the rough and tumble of our
lives and I acknowledge that there must be many who have felt the pain of rejection, being
cheated on, stolen from and/or misunderstood and we carry the burdens of these with us
consoling ourselves with the fact that it is impossible to love those who have so wronged
us. Well, according to what we have just said, that is a cop-out. The Scripture teaches us
that we can love as Jesus has loved simply because He has told us to do it and, when we
take that step of courageous faith and make some outstanding obedience statements and
do them one at a time, we will find the supernatural work of God becomes the natural
outworking of God through us. My closing statement today is simply, YOU CAN DO IT!
Prayer Thought: Today before you pray won’t you make a list of those who you find difficult
to love. This may be an individual person, it may be group of people, it may be a status of
people, it could be a family member, an ex-spouse, a previous employer; it could be anyone.
Won’t you then take that list and bring it before the Lord and resolve in your spirit to love
them. Won’t you then ask yourself the question, “what would it look like if I were to love that
person?” write it down and then do it! You don’t even have to pray for this, you don’t have to
ask for strength for this because God has already given it to you. YOU CAN DO IT.

WEDNESDAY
John 15 v 13 – “ Greater love has no man this then he lay down his life for his friend.”
Today I would like to talk about the evidence of unconditional love. All too often we talk
about love in the context of feelings, generally sentimental ones. Love, however, is proven
by actions. In the verse above the actions stated is that of laying down one’s life for one’s
friend. According to the passage there is associated with every statement of love a
required action of sacrifice. When God stated in John 3 v 16 that He loved the world He
followed it up with and enormous sacrifice, namely His own Son. For us to declare our
love for one another and to neglect the required sacrifice would make our love merely a
sentimental feeling and, at best, a statement of good intent. One of the most profound
pictures of the evidence of love is seen in the woman who came to Jesus that night in the
presence of His disciples and knelt at His feet and poured an entire bottle of expensive
perfume over them. The disciples, in the main, were outragedat this and declared it to be a
waste, Jesus, however, corrected them by saying,“This woman has done for me that which
you have not done, you declare your love for me but you have not even washed my feet.
This woman, however, has not just declared her love for me, but has made an enormous
sacrifice on my behalf.”