Love Means Sacrifice, Not Selfishness by Joyce Meyer
No matter how long you may live, you'll never stop learning. Every minute ofevery day brings us new opportunities to learn something we've never knownbefore. As long as we're open to receive, God will continue to teach usevery day.I'm still learning, and I know I always will be. What God teaches me everyday about love continues to change my life.
I have come to the place in mylife where I can honestly say, "Lord, eliminate everything in my life thatis holding me back. Please, Lord, take away anything that is keeping me fromwalking in love and finding true fulfillment in my life." In other words,"Lord, reduce me to love (bring me to a state or condition of walking inlove completely)!"One of the most important facets I've learned about love is unselfishness,which is characterized in the Bible as the willingness to sacrifice one'sown wishes for those of others. I've learned that true love will alwaysadapt and adjust to the needs and desires of other people.
It's impossible for people who have truly been reduced to love to beselfish. God has taught them how to be totally adaptable and adjustable toothers. Selfish people, on the other hand, have hard hearts.
It's verydifficult for selfish people to learn anything-especially if it involvesself-sacrifice. They expect everyone else to adjust to them and their needs.They simply don't know how to adjust to others without becoming angry orupset.Learning to adapt and adjust myself to the needs and desires of others wasvery difficult for me. To be honest, I just wanted my way, and I got upsetwhen I didn't get it. I was selfish! I wanted what I wanted, when I wantedit! I couldn't stand having to wait on someone else, or bending my ownwishes to accommodate someone else's timetable.But God began to soften my heart, and gradually, I learned to see the needsof others.
Then God gave me compassion-the heartfelt desire to meet theneeds of others first, before my own.Slowly, I became committed to walking in love. I learned to adapt my ownneeds and desires in order to help meet the needs of others. I learned howto show love in different ways to different people. Did you know that notall people need the same thing from us? One of our children, for example,may need more of our personal time than the others. One of our friends mayneed more encouragement on a regular basis than another.For example, my aunt needs me, my parents need me, my brother needs me, myhusband needs me, each of my four children needs me, my five grandchildrenneed me, my employees need me, my friends need me-and they all need me indifferent ways.Do I ever feel too needed? Of course! All of us feel overwhelmed from timeto time. But I remind myself that God gives me grace for whatever He placesin my life, and I'm fortunate to be loved and needed by so many.Do I ever get weary of always trying to be available to meet the needs ofothers? ....Yes! But I remind myself of all the years I lived in selfishness andhow unhappy I was. Now I'm just making up for lost time! When I considerthis, it doesn't take long for me to adjust my attitude.
After all, justtelling people "I love you" is not enough. We need to go beyond the wordsand actually do something to help meet their needs.My husband, Dave, loves to play golf, so I try to make sure our schedulegives him opportunities to play. But there was a time when it angered me forhim to play golf. I was miserable because I had not learned to adjust to hisneeds or desires. I wanted him to make all the adjustments.I never acknowledged the many ways in which Dave adjusted to my needs. Inever saw what he did-only what he didn't do...and it was ruining ourrelationship.
I'm glad now that I have learned to adapt and adjust. It was alittle hard on me for a while, but it saved our marriage.Once you've been reduced to love, you'll have no trouble establishing andmaintaining good, healthy relationships with others. Your primary goal inlife will be to put the wishes of others before your own.
You will learnthat true love is all about sacrifice. Selfishness will be a thing of the past.
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1 komentar:
really nice posting.. hope the love in my life can be like its...