Grace Notes & Announcements

Dear Grace Family,

Unconditional love!  It’s a phrase often used, and something yearned for by most of us.  But what does it really mean?

Unconditional is an adjective that means “not limited by conditions.  Complete, unqualified, categorical. The first part of the word “un” means not dependent on something else, and “conditional” means dependent on something else.  So what we are really saying is that we want to be loved (another word with a million definitions) without having to earn it in some way, or qualify it by some action or behavior. 

Sound familiar?  It sounds an awful lot like grace, doesn’t it?  We can’t possibly earn it or be worthy of it, but God gives it to us anyway. That’s how big and unconditional His love is for us!

We toss around the word ‘love’ pretty freely, without really understanding the deep commitment it actually represents.  C.S. Lewis said “Love, as distinct from “being in love” is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit."

So perhaps ‘unconditional love’ is really the act of granting others grace, just as it’s been granted to us.  When we’re feeling most frustrated with someone perhaps we should remember that for love to be real, it must be unconditional.  And it must also be a choice we make – sometimes over and over again.  We can’t just assume it will always exist, but give it the attention and work it deserves.

Anything worth having is worth working on.  Romans 5:8 tells us that God loves us at our darkest… “for while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  That’s the kind of love we need to put into practice every day; for our family, our friends, our church family, and for strangers.

Remember…  “Love is patient, is kind.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails.”  1 Corinthians 13:4.7-8.  I pray your week is filled with the blessing of giving and receiving unconditional love,with us and join our community -- not because of who we are, but because of who HE is.

Be blessed my Grace Family.  God is on the throne! 

   Pastor Bobbie