We all like to be winners. We all like to believe that we are on the winning team. We don’t typically join teams, clubs, or groups where there is no hope of winning. We want to belong to the side that leaves the field as winners. We want to believe the love wins, but unfortunately our hope that love wins can get questioned because our lives don’t look like the Hallmark movie or the heroic story where everyone ends up with their happily ever after life. As we end this week of looking at loving our enemies we want to get rooted into a truth that will keep our hope tank full that love always wins.
Read John 19:16-30 – This story of Jesus’ crucifixion is painful to read and even more difficult to process when we accept the fact that Jesus did this all only because of His love for you and me. When reading these verses it is hard to believe that love wins. Being beaten, verbally harassed, emotionally deserted, and mercilessly killed doesn’t seem like winning to me. Sometimes loving our enemies doesn’t feel like we are winning. Rejection, criticism, unfair and untrue accusations, constant investment without response, or unmet expectations can drain our hope that love can win. The truth is that love will always win. When Jesus said it was finished, the enemy cheered because he thought he had won, but three days later when the earth shook, the temple curtain tore, and Jesus came back to life, not only had death been defeated, and the cost of sin crushed, but Jesus made the ultimate illustration that love wins. There may be tough days believing that love wins, but never give hope that day 3 is coming and in the same way that Jesus’ love for us has already won, it will keep on winning.
For Today: Make a list of times where love has won in your life (Parents, friends, random interactions from strangers, unexpected gift when you needed it the most). Now make a list of ways where you have experienced God’s love for you personally. Read Romans 8:38-39 and list the things that can keep you from God’s love. In a world where loving people doesn’t always look like we are winning, remember that nothing can separate us from God’s love once we have given our lives to Christ, not our poor decisions, not the enemies attacks, not hurtful people, not unstable emotions, NOTHING. LOVE WINS, LOVE WINS, LOVE WINS! Write that somewhere that you can see every morning as you start the day or in a place that you see right before you interact with that person that is hard to love.