Love Is the SolutionНамуна

What does the Bible say about love?

The Bible mentions love many times. Jesus stated that the most important command is to love God with all your heart, mind, and soul. Then, love your neighbor as you love yourself which implies that you should love yourself. If we were able to obey this command from the day we are born, and our parents and their parents did before we were born, then we would see a lot less disease, sickness, and suffering today. In his book “A more excellent way” Henry Wright explains that all spiritually-rooted disease (which makes up about 80% of all disease) is the result of separation on three levels:

1.The separation between you and God—separated from His Word and His love.

2.The separation between you and yourself.

3.The separation between you and others.

Separation in this context includes a whole number of states, including unforgiveness, hatred, bitterness, resentment, anger, hostility, jealousy, envy, pride, etc. All these terms stand in sharp contrast to love. And we can, therefore, say that love and relationship are the antidotes to separation.

But without receiving the undeserved love of God, forgiving ourselves and others, and the renewal of our minds, we find it impossible to obey Jesus and love Him and others the way He loved us. We are born into a fallen world, into sin (Psalm 51:5). Our parents may not have been able to love us perfectly because they did not receive perfect love from their parents, and so on. This is one way in which the sins of our forefathers and generational curses are given the opportunity to be passed on from generation to generation.

The disease is (very often) the fruit of separation from God (then yourself and others) in some area of your life—a breakdown in the relationship. If the disease is the fruit of separation from God, then the lack of disease is the fruit of a relationship with God—a restored and reconciled relationship enabled through sacrificial, undeserved love.

Once you are born, during those first few years of life, the level of nurturing (love) or deprivation (lack of love) you experience has a strong influence on your neuro-psychological (hormonal and neurotransmitter) profile. It exerts a big influence on your mindset. It controls and directs the way you think and act. How you respond to the world is determined by your mindset, which functions unconsciously yet drives your choices and actions and determines subsequent results.

After you have been exposed to the world in your formative years and you grow older, the world (the devil) starts telling you lies about yourself. You are “useless, stupid, unwanted, no good, bad child, etc.” Many of us would have endured these scolds or abusive phrases growing up, either at the hands of parents, guardians, teachers, or peers.

No wonder you have an identity based on a broken world’s view of yourself by the time you are a teenager. The natural thing to do is believe all these things about yourself and establish identity. We base our identity on this instead of on being sons and daughters of God. And we exchange the promises of the Bible for these lies of the enemy.

We tend to base our self-worth on what the world says. Today we are even more likely to try to measure up and conform to societal standards. When we look at social media and compare ourselves to others, we will either feel rejected or insufficient because others have more followers, or we become prideful because we gain more likes and adoration.

You are not loved because you are perfect or valued because you have a thousand followers. You don’t have to seek acceptance from God, as you already have this through Christ.

Jesus said the truth will set you free. What did he mean by that? What is the truth?

As we go through life, we will hear two voices. One is God’s voice, and the other belongs to the world or the devil. One is the truth, and the other is a lie. One speaks of love and acceptance; while the other speaks of fear and rejection. Which voice you listen to and believe will determine most of your life. You could believe God’s word about you, which is the truth, or you can believe the lie. If you believe the truth, you will form your identity on that—that you are a highly loved and favored child of God. You will not have to listen to the world and try and form your identity on what you do, how many likes you acquire, what you have achieved, or what you own. Your security is established in something that cannot be taken away from you. You are a child of God with His Spirit living in you. If you believe this truth, you will be set free. You will not live in bondage to sin and lies of this world. If you do not believe the truth of the Gospel, you are probably living in fear—fear of tomorrow, death, and what others think or say. If your identity is not established in the fact that you are God’s child, you will seek acceptance, acknowledgment, validation, approval, and worth in everything else around you.

We are transformed and changed through the heart. Faith and love are conditions of the heart. Once our hearts are touched, the mind will follow. Then we need a constant renewal of the mind. Your “old self” and mind need to be renewed on a daily basis. This is done through reading the Word, meditating on His love, and cultivating a real relationship with Him in your quiet place.

Do you find your identity in the hell you’ve been through or in the heaven you’re created for?