I’m sure you’ve heard people make the statement, “You can’t help who you love” or “The heart does what it wants to do.” It’s true that the heart can be untamed in its desires, but God has given us something called free-will. He has also given us the responsibility to exercise the gift of free-will when it comes to what goes in our hearts, and what comes out of them. So, He wants us to take a different approach when it comes to love, because love is serious business. 1 John 4:8(NLT) tells us “But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” This verse lets us know definitively that love is a choice. We choose who we want to love and how we want to show it. To love God’s way is, and will always be, the key to success in all relationships.
The world has a completely different formula and approach; it’s take what you can when you can, and if its anything left-over, take that too. As Christians, this sometimes unconsciously filters into our mindset and affects our relationships. Those that have been single for a long season have a pretty good idea of their likes and dislikes. Through both bad and good experiences, they’ve learned what irritates them, and what makes them feel valued and appreciated. It is good to know what we want, but we can make the mistake of holding so tightly to these things that they get rooted in our hearts.
1 John 4:13-16 The Message (MSG) says, “13-16 This is how we know we’re living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He’s given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we’ve seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God’s Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we’ve embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.”
Jesus Christ made it crystal clear in Luke 16:13 that we don’t have the capacity to serve two masters at the same time. James 1:8 tells us that a double-minded person is unstable in all his or her ways. We have the responsibility and privilege to make choices, and staying in the middle is not an option. God is a jealous God. He alone must be worshipped and adored. His love must take centerstage in our hearts and minds, because fear and love cannot occupy the same space. We determine which one rules based on our free-will choice.
1 Corinthians 13:13 (NLT) tells us, “Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.” The love that this verse is pointing to is the all-encompassing, overwhelming, unconditional, unselfish love of God. Our relationship with God must come first, and we must participate in this relationship with Him by embracing His brand of love through the life, ministry, and example of Jesus Christ. This is what attracts blessings like a magnet.
We live in a world that is riddled with fear, lust, envy, jealousy and pain, all symptoms of the cursed dominion of the devil. It’s in plain sight and gives us an ever-present reminder of what life without God and His love looks like. We have to be ever so careful about the things that we allow to dominate our hearts. God’s love is a huge reality. His love is so awesome that we don’t need to give anything else room. It’s so large that it will consume every crack and crevice of our existence if we allow it. As we make the choice to understand and express it in the way that He desires us to, 2 Thessalonians 3:5 tells us that God will take the wheel and lead us into this kind of contagious, ever-abiding love. ■
Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“God’s Contagious, Ever-Abiding Love”, written by FACM, Finding A Christian Man.Com ©2017. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!
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