{"id":12884,"date":"2025-07-30T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/?p=12884"},"modified":"2025-07-07T07:51:47","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T12:51:47","slug":"greater-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2025\/07\/30\/greater-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Greater Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>One-minute read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/White-Love-Bible-Verse-Instagram-Post-1024x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12885\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/White-Love-Bible-Verse-Instagram-Post-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/White-Love-Bible-Verse-Instagram-Post-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/White-Love-Bible-Verse-Instagram-Post-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/White-Love-Bible-Verse-Instagram-Post-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/White-Love-Bible-Verse-Instagram-Post-180x180.png 180w, https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/White-Love-Bible-Verse-Instagram-Post.png 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sacrifice expresses love, which requires community.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t have someone to love, we do not need to sacrifice.\u00a0 Jesus came to Earth in human form as an act of love for His Father\u2019s creation.\u00a0 The Almighty gave us free will, the choice to accept His presence in our lives or reject it.\u00a0 Without choice, we can\u2019t love.\u00a0 Christ chose to become one of us so that He could teach us unconditional love, setting an example that led to the cross and the ultimate sacrifice: laying down His life for ours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the time of this writing, a horrific flash flooding disaster in Texas fills the headlines.\u00a0 Rapidly rising waters in the middle of the night caused destruction along the Guadalupe River as a 20 ft wall of water flowed downstream on the Fourth of July.\u00a0 Amidst the tragic loss of life, stories of heroism began to surface as people sacrificed their lives to save the lives of others.\u00a0 Love motivates us to action, and no greater love occurs than when someone lays down their life for another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Daily life typically doesn\u2019t require the ultimate sacrifice that people made in Texas.\u00a0 But to love others well, we must learn to sacrifice our needs for theirs.\u00a0 Finding ways to serve our neighbors helps us fulfill the Great Commandment and leaves the world in a better state than we found it.\u00a0 Love God and others sacrificially and experience the joy that comes from other-centered living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Journal Question:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">How has someone sacrificially loved you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Random Act of Kindness:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">How can you sacrificially love someone today?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One-minute read. Sacrifice expresses love, which requires community.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t have someone to love, we do not need to sacrifice.\u00a0 Jesus came to Earth in human form as an act of love for His Father\u2019s creation.\u00a0 The Almighty gave us free will, the choice to accept His presence in our lives or reject it.\u00a0&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2025\/07\/30\/greater-love\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Greater Love<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12884"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12888,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12884\/revisions\/12888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}