by Cindy Pennington

Created on: January 18, 2007   Last Updated: May 11, 2007

As Christians we will never really understand love until we meet Christ face to face. We begin to understand true love as we begin our relationship with God. In the Bible, in 1 John 4:8 we learn, "God is love." Because God is love only the Holy Spirit living in and through us can teach us what love truly is.

Too many of us have believed that love is nothing more than a feeling that comes and goes. Nothing could be further from the truth. Love is a choice, an action, a lifestyle. All of us have many chances each day to love or to let that opportunity pass us by. Love could be something as simple as letting another driver pull in ahead you. It may be as complex as laying down one's life for another. Each of us has the capacity to show unconditional love, Agape love because God created us to do so. As we surrender our will to God and give Him liberty to begin to transform us into the person he designed us to be we will begin to see love grow in our lives. The more liberty we give God the more like Him we will become. God is a gentleman waiting patiently for us to be ready to let Him show us who we are. The reason our lives don't work is because we are trying to be someone our loving God never designed us to be. If we were honest with ourselves, most of would have to admit that we feel like we are playing dress up. We have worked hard to figure out who we are supposed to be in each situation and we put on that person rather than being who God designed us to be.

As Christians we are told in John 3:16 ""For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." This is the true picture of Agape love but what does it really mean? In Hebrews 4:15 we read "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin." I am encouraged to know that Christ really does know what my life is like but that still does not explain love to me. In Philippians 2:6-8 the Bible says, "(Jesus) Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death- even death on a cross!

God became human to live among us. He was a baby, completely dependant on his parents as we were. He was a toddler learning

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