In an attempt to remember what God has been teaching me these days, I looked back on my journal and saw my latest entry. This was 5 months ago (yes, it was that long that I'm not writing down my thoughts) but it still hit a very large spot in my heart.
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"When there is control or perception of control, there is not love. Love only exists where there is freedom."
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. - 1John4:18
Sometimes we fear about our future. And that leads us to controlling others. We tend to take matters on our own hand because we fear of the unknown or we don't trust. Either we don't trust God or we don't trust others. Love believes what is best. It always believes, it always trust, it always hope, it always perseveres. So not trusting results to fear. And saving ourselves, we tend to control. But true love exists when there is freedom. Freedom to believe what is best, freedom to do and act according on how we know God. Freedom to believe what is best to a person, according on how God is working in the life of that person. Freedom to surrender everything to God because He is sovereign..He loves us..
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I am always reminded of the story of Samson and Delilah whenever manipulations and taking control is concerned. Delilah twisted things to get what she wants from Samson. I also had my own share of stories on manipulations and taking control. Because of my experiences before, I honestly thought that women, generally, are good schemers especially if we see that we are in hand of the situation.
But as I reflect on it, we really have the tendency to think about ourselves first, hence doing anything we can to take control. We want things to be done our way. Some are manipulated deliberately, some are done implicitly. We even tend to excuse and convince ourselves that what we are doing is good. But is it of God?
Loving others mean that we consider others better than ourselves. It means taking the focus off ourselves and seeing things in the light of how God loves. Loving means swimming in the freedom of God's boundaries. Loving means knowing the heart of God. Love means God. Not just what is good, but God.
