Don't Lose Love

Wow...I almost didn't write this one today.  I had so many thoughts rolling around in my head. Here are just a few:  love sucks(that may have gotten some attention)....love them or leave them....love of a lifetime....one true love....love never dies....love conquers a multitude of sins....love of money....love/hate relationships....conditional/unconditional love, and....the list goes on.  I'm sure you could add a few of your own titles.

My ideas on love would be pretty one-sided and skewed based on my experiences thus far in life....some amazing and some not so much.  So, I thought since I'm still holding out for another love of a lifetime....what in the world do I say about "love" that would make a difference?  Then it hit me....when I lack knowledge, and I have no answers where do I go?  I go to the Scripture....What does God's word say about love?  It tells us that love never fails....whoever keeps my commandments loves me....love covers all offenses....God's steadfast love endures forever....because He loved us He sent His son to die for us....we ought to love our neighbor as we do our self....and it gives us a blue print for brotherly love and marital love....and then I found it....

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.  
I Corinthians 13:13

The dictionary defines faith as complete trust or confidence in someone or something, and hope as a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. These are both essential in living a life of peace.  There are so many things we will never understand this side of heaven.  Faith and Hope are what get us up every morning and carry us through difficult times. Why does God tell us love is greater than these two essential components of life?  Look at the definition of love from Webster's Dictionary.

Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment.^[1] Love is also a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection; and "the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another".^[2] Love may also be described as actions towards others (or oneself) based on compassion, or as actions towards others based on affection.^[3]



Without love there is no hope or faith. How can we truly live a life of complete confidence or expectation that good will prevail if we don't love in action and deed?  I'm a little teary eyed on this one tonight. There is so much ugliness and so much pain in the world where people selfishly tear apart others.  If just one more person could grasp the love of God and pass it on...then that's two people who understand the love of God.  They pass it on and that's three people... and so on.

The love of God in us is an action. The more we pass it on....the more the message of a life of freedom in Christ is demonstrated to the world!  I don't know about you, but I'm done living a life of selfish love.  I often lose hope, and my faith is sometimes weak; but when you take them away I want to be left with love.  I want to live in the freedom to love others as I want to be loved.

Leave a legacy of love.  Love your children, love your spouse, love your family, love your friends.   Put healthy boundaries around your heart to protect the devil from robbing you of joy.  He can't take God's love from you, but He can stop you from giving it away!