Day 8: Love

“And thou shalt LOVE the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” Deuteronomy 6:5

Love in our world today has so many faces … or so we are led to believe. But, the question is, “Is it true love?” Well, what is true love? What does it look like? I love the definition that I read one day by Jill Briscoe, author of “Love that Lasts,” that says this about I Corinthians 13 “It is as if Paul ‘painted a portrait [of love] with words, and Jesus sat for it. For in the Lord Jesus Christ we have the perfect picture of the perfect love’.” How can your love or my love even compare? Yet, God not only expects, but requires, the same of us, His children!

Due to space, I won’t type out I Corinthians 13 aka the love chapter so that we can go verse-by-verse to see what true love looks like. But, here is a shortened synopsis of it:

· It is NOT grounded in any external value

· It is NOT an act of self-completion or self-satisfaction by means of another

· It does NOT demand anything in return

· It is NOT based on how you feel, but rather on a decision to love

· It IS able to stand on its own; it doesn’t need someone’s love in return

· It IS a pure desire to care for another

· It IS a love that is seen in the marriage of a mature couple

· It IS strictly a biblical form of love and cannot be found in secular writings

· It IS a godly love

Our pastor has been preaching some on love the past couple of weeks. A few points that stuck out to me were the following:

1) Love is an action. We have all heard the phrase, “Actions speak louder than words.” This is true. You can say all of the words that you want to say. They can be quite eloquent even, but if the actions do not match the words, your words have just become a lie.

2) Our love is seen through our obedience. How do we know that our children love us? Through their obedience, right? If we truly love God, we will obey Him and His Word!

3) Do we truly love with our ALL? This is what God is asking of us. Do we truly love with ALL though? Do we love our spouse with ALL of our hearts? Do we love our parents with ALL of our hearts? Do we love God with ALL of our hearts? If so, self will be sacrificed and God will be first in our lives. Where does He place in yours?