Have you ever been motivated to do something for someone, and realizing the enormous sacrifice it took to do it, now you find yourself seeking for “compensation” or adoration from the person you sacrificed for?  It seems to be a logical response to desire a person to appreciate what you have done.  But what if they don’t?  What enables you not to live in resentment and bitterness towards them?

If you think about what motivated Jesus to go to the cross, and how He struggled to accept the sacrifice He was take on. It had to be something, or someone greater than ungrateful people, who would reject Him and take Him for granted.  Had Jesus anchored His motivation in going to the cross for people’s adoration, over loving obedience to the Father, imagine how frustrating that would be?

Not to say Christ doesn’t want our adoration and praise, but that is not the root motivation of His suffering.  Because what enables a person to love unconditionally is not based on how much they are shown adoration, praise or even love from others. Because if you were compensated for what you always gave, than how could someone know you love them unconditionally?  We’re only able to love unconditionally without being compensated, because we draw our strength to love others like Jesus did!

In other words, we really don’t understand the love of God and the gospel, if we expect compensation from people every time we sacrifice for them.  Sacrificing for other people should be a byproduct of our love and faithfulness to God, whereby we seek Him for our reward, not people.  We should learn from Jesus, that people can never compensate for how much it cost you in sacrifice to God, to love them unconditionally.

Bitterness and resentment eventually overtakes the soul, when we put people in place of God, as the root of our motivation to sacrifice for them…

In His Love, Ld