Connected to Love

“Peace with God paves the way to peace with ourselves and equips us to be at peace with others.” 

If we apply the Commutative Law (my math teachers would be so proud of me right now), it stands to reason that if we are not at peace with someone, we are likely not at peace with ourselves and if that is the case, it’s highly likely that we are not at peace with God.

It is difficult to be at peace with someone, or Someone, you don’t know. If you don’t know them, why should you trust them, right? Making the decision to take the time to get to know God will alter your attitude toward Him. You will begin to trust Him and He will reign as the utmost authority in your life because you have figured out that He is way more capable than you. In essence, He will be on the throne… and that means you are taking a lesser seat. As you begin to realize the unfathomable love He has for you, you begin to know you are loved and cared for in such a magnificent way that your trust in Him will start to increase. You learn to be at peace with the One who created you for a purpose.

With that peace, comes an ability to be at peace with yourself. You no longer live in fear of failure, but in hope. That hope comes from knowing that He suffered a torturous death, one that He could have walked away from, because He loves YOU. He made you and watches over you, seeing your good days and your bad, hearing your words and your thoughts. Yet, in spite of that, He was willing to go to the cross for you. You can never escape His love for you. Ever!

So, if you are learning to live at peace with God and with yourself, you can begin to realize that you are not responsible for another’s actions or words. You don’t have to own them or wear them or dwell on them. You are free from playing the role of judge in their lives because you have abdicated the throne and let God take His rightful place there. You can relax and love that unlovely person with the unlimited source of Divine love that flows through you in an ever-widening channel, as you allow God to transform you into His image. 

If anyone knows how ridiculously messed up we are, it is the All Seeing God. As a dear friend said to me the other day… we are “tore up from the floor up!” He sees the flaws that you don’t even know you have right now. He sees the flaws of your biggest pain in the neck. He will deal with them. You only have to deal with YOU. That is a critical part of learning to live at peace. Let that person be where they are on the learning curve and don’t allow them to control who you become. If you are struggling to love them and want vindication or seem to think that allowing bitterness to grow in you is appropriate, take a look at your heart. You have just dethroned Jesus and taken His place. When He is truly on the throne, He pours His love into the kingdom He is establishing in you. That love will overflow and be apparent in even your most difficult relationships.

On paper, it looks so simple. In reality, not so much. It is very difficult to allow God’s perfect will to be done in your life every waking moment. Our sinful nature has taught us that we are in charge, so letting go of the desire to dole out justice by treating others as they deserve, rather than with grace and mercy, seems to be our default setting. Jesus boiled the whole truth of the gospel into two things: Love God; Love others. Our strongest desire to do that, will not make it so. Only God can help us love like that and if He is not in charge of our heart, our relationships will suffer.

Be aware! When anger, bitterness, resentment, sorrow and frustration are your initial reactions to others, don’t waste time asking for God to deal with them… because He already knows to do that. In His time, the Spirit of God will speak to them. Don't take on His job. It's way above your pay grade. Just trust me on that. Rather, ask Him to ease you down off of that throne that is way too big for you, and allow Him to be your Authority. Let Him replace your hurt feelings with His love. Jesus has much more reason to hate your adversaries than you do, yet He has nothing but love for them. Is it any wonder that we are so miserable when we carry around the burden of anger, hatred and bitterness toward someone, when we were made to reflect God’s love?

Allow Jesus to ease you into the other side of the yoke He is wearing so that He can lighten your load. Find freedom in knowing that He alone knows the way to peace with God and with others, and, being yoked to Him, will most assuredly get you there. It is not a cumbersome thing to place His yoke on your shoulders and allow Him to guide you through living in loving relationships. Knowing that He is the very definition of LOVE, it really makes sense to allow Him to guide you to living a life of love.

Easy breezy? Not really. It is a process we work on all of our lives. But, I can testify that it gets easier to love well when you practice being yoked to Him every moment of every day. When your heart feels dark and your attitude is in the pit, have a look at your heart and your shoulders. If you are seeing an awful lot of YOU and only a little bit of HIM, you will understand why you are feeling the way you do.

Now here's my disclaimer. LOVE HURTS. His yoke doesn't take the pain away when you have been hurt by loving someone who doesn't reciprocate. However, the pain of loving while being yoked to the epitome of LOVE is much less than the burden of carrying around bitterness and anger all alone.