Love
Whenever I open the Bible and looked for the word “love”, I can find it in almost every chapter.
Actually, the whole Bible tells us an amazing “love story” and teaches us “How to love”, isn’t it?
Love is unconditional.
I come from a culture which only allows one child in a family.
I am certainly the centre of attention in my family.
As you can imagine, it has its benefits, but sometimes it’s a burden as well.
I was brought up by being told how to be a good daughter, a motivated student, or a successful
professional. I was told how to be an outstanding person from my teachers & family. As a result,
I learned how to please people and make people around me feel “happy” or “Satisfied”. But
most of the time, I failed. Because you can never reach those standards or expectations. As
there is always an invisible “kid” who is doing better than you.
Until I met Jesus, I never knew about unconditional love.
I have heard this word so many times before, but I’ve never known what it meant or believed it.
Especially the word “unconditional”, I couldn’t imagine what kind of love could be totally
unconditional. As the world tells you, you must “earn love” yourself. You probably get used to
thinking that ‘my family must not love me as much as before because I have failed to meet their
expectations’. ‘My friend must not love me anymore because I have betrayed them.’ Surely God
knows everything I did, I sinned so God will not love me anymore. But God’s love is so different.
Although we are commanded to repent our sins and strive towards the way of God, He never
stops loving us in our journey to righteousness. Unconditional love is not motivated by personal
gain, unconditional love never fails. This is God’s love; very firmly he tells you “I Love you”.
=And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives
in God, and God in them. 1John 4:16.
There is no fear in love.
I’ve been through a very tough season in recent three years. On the first day after my wedding, I
got the news that my father had brain cancer. I can still remember heavy rain outside, and I was
sitting in the car, crying and crying. I couldn’t stop thinking about what will happen to my father
and how I could ever face it. The fear of death covered me, and I felt so weak and so hopeless.
I prayed for my dad almost every day during that time. Last year this time of the month, my dad
had passed away, and it was so painful. But God came through. I had no fear at all and
peacefully accepted my dad’s death.
I just want to say God is truly amazing, and He knows better than anyone. It’s complex to
explain how during the darkest time God came through.
I can try to explain it in two different views.
The first is how God prepared my family and me and showed His love for us continually. God
blessed me with a child during my most darkness time. The baby is an absolute delight for me
and of my family. Everyone is so happy about it and even my dad understood he was a
grandfather now. I thank God that my dad could see my baby and had some time to spend with
him. And even my child still remembers his grandfather to this day. It was such a blessing for
God to show me how He loves and how it has no boundaries.
Another way was with my dad. My dad was a very proud person. My parents’ marriage was
really in danger due to so many things related to his pride. 12 years ago, my dad was
diagonised with cancer for the first time. Hearing the news he disappeared from home. My mum
and I couldn’t contact him for about 3 years. The very reason he ran away from us is to “earn
enough money for family”. After 3 years, we got news that he suddenly got admitted to the
hospital with severe Epilepsy. He has no choice but contacted my mum to sign the doctor note
for his surgery. During these three years, he changed a lot, he became a more gentle and loving
man. He met Jesus! He started to teach people about Jesus.
But at that time we all thought he had gone mad because we didn’t know Jesus. But I was just
so glad to see my dad in a hospital, as I finally knew where he is now. God healed him from
cancer, healed his heart, healed my family, and healed my parents’ marriage. Through my dad,
my mum and I met Jesus. Sometimes when I think about those dark times, I find myself
thanking God for the trails my dad went through cause through it all he found Jesus and how I
was saved too. If not, because of the trials, how can we be saved? Looking back now, I can say
God’s love has never failed.
I cannot imagine how I could have gone through this time if I had no God in my life. I know my
dad is in a better place with God now, and God really loves him and gave the best to him.
Sometimes fear is unknown about the future or fear of future suffering. The person who
experiences fear “has not been perfected in love”. But with God, we are looking forward to the
future with joy rather than fear because He unconditionally loves us.