Real Love is Messy

Real love looks messy!

And when I say messy, I mean messy.

When I think of the definition of real love, I cannot help but think about the beaten and bloody body of my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Jesus on the cross is the definition of Real Love!

In this fallen world, a world that opposes everything the kingdom of God stands for, messy individuals, according to worldly standards, are considered dysfunctional and unloveable. Or should I say, those who have not mastered the art of hiding their struggles and challenges or the issues they face because of the fall of humanity are considered messy and unloveable?

When I think of what makes humanity messy, it boils down to sin/spiritual issues.

Who do you believe is working behind the scenes manipulating how we respond to individuals who we can see are spiritually messy and need the love of Jesus, our saviour, extended through us to be delivered and made whole?

Who do you think is working overtime trying to leverage strongholds in the life of the believer by promoting a feeling of shame and weakness? Never wanting a believer to remember they have an advocate and a Father who is always willing to forgive?

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Well, friend, satan the deceiver/liar has inserted himself into all earthly systems. His agenda is to keep anyone that is not a part of the kingdom of God spiritually messy, killing, stealing and destroying all the time at any time if God allows.

Friend satan has no conscience. He has no mercy, and he does not play fair.

If an individual is a part of his kingdom, it does not make them exempt from his nasty schemes.

John 10:10
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

John 14:30
“I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me;”

2 Corinthians 4:4 “The God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

John 8:44 “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Satan cannot do as he pleases with the children of God; only what God allows to come our way can come for purification or the strengthening of our faith, but with this in mind, satan is relentless and will never get tired of shooting fiery darts at us. Satan knows how much we are loved and works overtime for us not to see him or understand the magnitude of God’s love for us.

We are so loved that Christ died for us while we were sinners.

Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Friend, a soul in line with what is considered functional here on earth (which has nothing to do with the spiritual aspect of a man!), a soul that has learned to hide flaws in this realm, is still messy and even messier when it does not know Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
God wants us to, by the unearthing of the things in our lives that are spiritually unclean by the Holy Spirit, to acknowledge the areas in our lives that need work.
Our Father is not afraid of the messy areas of our lives; He sent His Son, who knew no sin, to be a sacrifice for us. He wants to cut away the things in our lives that bring no glory to Him in love.

The sooner we surrender the areas that only He can fix, the better it will be for us.

The Lord, our God, disciplines those He loves.
Our loving Father is saying come!

Hebrew’s 12:6 “because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his Son.”

Only the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, can remove the scales from our eyes and help us to see the scams of the evil one.

Humanity is being conditioned to avoid situations and individuals who are considered messy at any cost.
But when Jesus stated the goal of His ministry, this is what He said.

Luke 4:18-19 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoner and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

We are called to love as Christians! We are called to do the work of our Father.

Real love is messy, and proof of this is on the cross!

If someone is functional according to the ways of the world or dysfunctional in sin, Satan does not care what we do and do not do once we are not choosing to crucify our flesh, choosing the ways of Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. He does not care if pride allows us to feel like we are better than others; to feel like our brothers who are walking on the wide paths that lead to destruction are not our concern. If we remain blind and oblivious to His wicked ways that all lead to death and eternity away from Christ, he does not care. Jesus Christ came so we could have life. Friend, our days are numbered; the individuals around us are all on borrowed time.
Loving is a command from God. But who should we love, and how should we express that love

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

What if we allowed the Holy Spirit to flow through us, loving people we interacted with, with the Biblical definition of love in mind, the seriousness of eternity? And in the knowledge that we are all born in sin, but still, Christ died for us?

Friend, how can we grow to truly love, or how can others grow to truly love us when we reject our brothers and sisters who are messy or hide the messy parts of our lives in fear that if it is seen, we might be rejected? Let me state we have all been affected by the effects of sin.

However, in Matthew22:37-40 Jesus commands us to love!

Matthew 22:37-40 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

We need to start seeing our one common enemy!
The one enemy who is destined for destruction and is working overtime to deceive any soul into joining him in a place that was prepared for Him and his demons.

In all fairness,
Mess in our lives is dysfunctional when we cannot admit that there is an area in our lives that needs intervention. Only the Holy Spirit can open our eyes to the spiritual mess in our lives.

What is considered messy in our lives is dysfunctional when not married to a commitment to change. Only the Holy Spirit can bring about lasting changes.

Mess is dysfunctional if, as Christians, our will to change does not include dependency on the Holy Spirit to prune us, cutting away the things in our lives that bring no glory to our Father.

In this fallen world, no one is exempt from sin’s effects. I know I said this before, but I think when we realize that we need grace, we are more open to extending grace to others.

The Bible states that we are born in sin. We all have areas in our lives that are dysfunctional, but with time, commitment to change or divine intervention, we will learn to become better versions of ourselves.

In fact, some areas in our lives that are considered dysfunctional based on what God has called us to be will take some time to heal or for behaviours to be unlearned by the prompting of the Holy Spirit if God does not see fit to intervene by means of a miracle.

Simply put, friend, do not give up on yourself when you mess up. Do not give up on those around you who need our love the most. For those who seem difficult to love, ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom on how to love them. I know some people are difficult to love and must be loved from a distance because their way of dealing with the pain inside of them is to inflict painful wounds on others. Ask God to show you when and how to let them go into His hands while you talk to Him about them in prayer.

Friend, I am not saying that we should indulge in sin or that the life of a believer is characterized by spiritual mess, but if you do sin, Get up and brush yourself off and allow the Holy Spirit to work on your heart because we will not be perfect until we are absent from this body and present with our Lord.

Our Father’s hope is that we will not sin, but if we do mess up, He made way for us.

1 John 2:1My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

You are not in a competition trying to reach perfection; only Jesus is perfect.

We will all mess up at times friend, but when we are messy, you remember that Jesus died for our sins past, present and future because He loves us!

When we feel messy, remember that you are still loved. There is nothing you or anyone else can do for God to stop loving them. Our Father is Love!

God hates sin in our lives but loves us.

God’s grace is new every morning!
We have the grace that we need and the grace that we should extend to others.

Friend, we all need the work of God, our husbandman, to prune us so that we can walk in our destiny. We need our Father to cut away any and everything that brings Him no glory so that daily, we can look more and more like Him. God will never reject us. He said that He came to us so that we might have life in abundance. We serve a God who allowed His beloved Son to rewrite our History. Jesus got messy on Calvary to save you and me. Jesus, who knew no sin, dealt with sin once and for all for us!

This friend is really messy, life-changing, and lasting love.

2 Corinthians 5:21 God made Him who had no sin to be sin[ for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Isaiah 55:3 But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds, we are healed.

Friend, you and I need not worry about areas in our lives that need divine intervention for us to change, or we need not turn our backs on our brothers and sisters who need us when they are face down, slipping in spiritual mess because our God got messy in order to save us!

Friend, How do we live and love in a world that is full of people who are spiritually messy?

Friend, keep this in mind:

Love is not always being head over heels for each other.

In fact, true love endures and stands the test of time. Sometimes, love is mingled with overwhelming tears and deep groans like a woman whose time has come to give birth.

Remember friend, this is love.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

As children of the Most High God, we are called to extend grace to ourselves and to anyone who might be struggling in a spiritually messy situation.

1 John 4:7-21 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 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. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

I hope these words of encouragement are helpful for you or someone you know.

You know I love hearing from you. Feel free to send me a message at any time.

Thinking out loud because life is better shared.
Kimberlee

P.S. Here is a song that reflects openness in our relationship with God. I hope you like it as much as I do!

Song: The One You Love