LOVE

By:  Blackaby

The problem with love is that so many people don’t have a clue what it is. Love is not a feeling; it’s an attitude. Basing love on emotions, as the world does, has caused immeasurable pain to countless numbers of people. It’s like building a sand castle on the beach. It might look solid, but when the high tide rolls in, the sand castle isn’t strong enough to hold up, and it washes away.

Feelings come and go. We all experience a wide array of emotions on any given day. Obviously, basing any human relationship strictly on feelings is asking for trouble. Parents who love their children only when the mood hits them are poor parents. A friend who remains loyal only until a better offer comes along is not much of a friend. A husband who deserts his wife and children because he finds another woman more attractive has missed the point of marriage. The world gives love a staggering amount of attention. Movies, songs, and books about love generate billions of dollars in revenue. The problem is, love is presented as something to be “fallen into” and “fallen out of.” There is no solution given for what to do when emotion fails you and the warm fuzzies are gone – other than bailing out and starting over with someone else. You can recognize worldly love by how unpredictable it is.

The Bible offers a different kind of love. This love says I am committed to act lovingly toward this person regardless of how I feel. You’ll be able to recognize biblical love: It is unselfish, patient, and loyal. It doesn’t keep score; it assumes the best motives. It gives without seeing in return; it always seeks to honor God, and it endures through thick, thin, and in-between. Feelings change. Feelings don’t last, but biblical love is eternal. Ask God to take you beyond the world’s way of loving so you can love others in a totally new dimension, as God does.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.” – 1 Cor. 13:4-8