Our curio cabinet kit arrived on the porch, and we hauled it inside. We followed the instruction manual. Everything was going well until we realized several steps were missing that caused us to put a piece in backward. Our optimistic momentum turned into confusion and frustration, and we took a break. Thanks to our previous DIY furniture experiences, we figured it out and completed the cabinet five hours later. The cabinet was beautiful. We were reminded how much better life goes when you have complete and accurate instructions.
Love Design Versus a Blueprint?
Many people use the word blueprint to describe a plan, but I prefer using the word design. The difference is in the definitions. Blueprints are a detailed plan, but they lack the process of execution. Without knowing how to get from step one to step two, you can get lost, take a wrong turn, get frustrated, or quit.
Knowing that Jesus loves us and commanded us to “love others AS we love ourselves” doesn’t tell us how to accomplish this command. We can get confused if we have grown up in an unhealthy non-Christian or even a Christian home. Because we learn our first imperfect love definitions and designs from imperfect people, we can only love the way we have known love.
Even if your parents are Christians, did they learn and love in the aspects of Christ’s love design? If they didn’t love according to Christ’s design, they operated part of the time from their imperfect design. They also passed their imperfect aspects or understanding of love to you without knowing it.
What Forms Our Love Design?
Each of us formed our definition and design of love from our experiences, messages, beliefs, and role models. No one was born knowing the pure love design of Christ because we are born sinners. Even when we accept Christ’s Salvation, he doesn’t download us with a “how-to” manual about living in his love.
Jesus doesn’t tell us everything because living in our faith requires our participation with him every day. We must learn who God and Jesus are through the Bible. We can see their heart, characteristics, commands, guides, and what their love design says and does through the life of Jesus Christ.
Without knowing and operating in Christ’s love design, we can only operate from our imperfect love design because that’s what we know. We can only love others and let them love us according to our understanding and definition of imperfect love. Our imperfect design is where problems come into our relationships. However, our awareness is where we can work with Jesus, and he can transform our broken love into his perfect design.
The enemy wants us to believe our broken love is automatically transformed into God’s and Christ’s love when we receive Salvation. We never stop to evaluate our definition and understanding of love. Most Christians are not taught to look at their love design and learn about Christ’s to see the differences. We don’t know what we don’t know, and nothing will change until we learn and live in God’s truth.
World’s Design Versus Christ’s Love Design
The world’s love design focuses on feelings and self-gratification. It has been distorted and perverted to see individuals, especially women, as objects for reproduction, ownership, service, and sexual pleasure. Most of the world’s love characteristics include using and abusing people to satisfy themselves and disposing of “loved ones” when they are no longer pleasurable or useful. The world’s love design is often portrayed and rationalized with some form of verbal, mental, physical, or sexual abuse.
Christ’s love is founded on the only pure love of God who made all things, including Jesus, to save us all. His love design starts with the first and second greatest commandments: love God above all, and love others as you love yourself. Christ’s love and life show us his love is full of respect, honor, freedom, and healthy boundaries. The love of Christ NEVER includes any form of abuse.
One of my biggest light-bulb moments happened when I realized I didn’t know Christ had a love design. I had been living in my imperfect love while praying for God to help me find true love in other people. I didn’t see that I had been trying to use my imperfect ways to learn to love like Jesus.
The devil used my broken love design to keep me searching for the true love I could only find in Christ. I was so caught up in my desire to feel loved that I didn’t seek Jesus with my whole heart and study God’s Word for answers. No one taught me that I was responsible for learning about Christ’s love design and how to live in it as part of my journey of faith. Without personally knowing God’s truth, I was deceived by my broken love design, misquoted and misused scriptures, and by false worldly beliefs presented as good.
What is Your Love Design Founded On, the World or Christ?
Our true compass of what pure love says and does must always be God’s word and the life and example of Jesus Christ. Although our Salvation transforms our spirit and makes us children of God, we live in the world to share Christ’s gospel. The disciple Peter calls us “aliens” of this world because this is not our eternal home. (1 Peter 2:11)
Most of Christ’s disciples’ problem is that they don’t realize they’re operating from an imperfect love design because they don’t know about Christ’s perfect design or how to live in it. Changing a lifetime of operating from a broken love design can only be done through the revelation, strength, and power of Christ living in us. The apostle Paul tells us where to begin.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Rom. 12:2)
Discover God’s truth about His pure unconditional love from His living Word, the Bible. As your personal relationship with Jesus grows each day, Jesus will transform your mind, heart, and love design into his. Your love design will never change into Christ’s until you learn and live in his pure love.
Stop struggling to feel unconditionally loved by people because only Jesus can fill this need. Choose to transform your love and relationships through Christ’s love design. Work with Jesus and transform your love and life today!
To grow in your understanding and relationship with Jesus, join my private Facebook group Growing Through God’s Transforming Grace, https://www.facebook.com/groups/growingthroughgod.
Ready to learn to live in Christ’s love design, go to this link now! Quest for Exceptional Love Book and Workbook on Amazon.
