How important is love?
Love must be significant to God. It is mentioned over 700 times in the Bible. Here are some vital facts about love, according to the Bible. Let’s explore!
Have you ever thought about the importance of love? Do you remember times in your life when you felt lifeless and lonely? Something was lacking, whether it was your loving someone else or someone else loving you. God created us to love and to be loved. Some people are easy to love. These people have a beautiful and kind and loving spirit. They exude with encouragement and joy and laughter. However, there are some of us that are difficult to love for whatever reason. It may be because of emotional wounds from our childhood, rejection, and the inability to accept and love ourselves. Remember the adage, hurting people hurt people. What are we doing about this? I am confident that we can find the answer to this problem where we can discover many of life answers, in the Bible. The Bible says that God is love, which makes it the perfect source to learn how to love others, even those who are unlovable. Our world has skewed the meaning of true love, but God's Word remains a steadfast source of the Truth about how we should love one another. The word of God says to love the Lord thy God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22: 37-38).
The scripture says that God is Love (1 John 4:8)! If we want the perfect example of love or the more excellent way (1 Corinthians 12:31), we must look to our Creator. Often, God's love is referred to as Agape love which is the highest form of love that is selfless and sacrificial. It is steadfast, unchanging, and unconditional. I remember in my early twenties I was reading Maya Angelou book, Why the Caged Birds Sings. On that beautiful and miraculous day, I read the only sentence in the entire book that was life-changing for me. It was . . . “the God of the universe loves me." As I meditated on these words and allowed them to penetrate my heart, I began weeping. The tears would not stop flowing. I became overwhelmed by the love and presence of God. God loves me . . . the God of the universe loves me, in spite of my history of sin, in spite of my poor choices, in spite being judgmental, and the list goes on and on and on. God loves me period; no if, and/or buts about it. Guess what? He loves you the very same way. It is crucial to believe how much God loves you so that you will be free to love others the way that He loves you.
If we do not love our brothers and sisters, then “how does God’s love abide in” us (1 John 3:17)? The answer, of course, is that it doesn’t because anyone “who does not love his brother (or sister) whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen," (1 John 4:20). The fact is, “anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love” (1 John 4:8), so “let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18).
An excellent chapter that shows us what love looks like and what it sounds like is I Corinthians Chapter 13:4-13. Reading these scriptures every morning before starting your day is life-changing. Try it!
We invite you to leave feedback about what you have read. Iron sharpens iron. We are all learning and growing together.
ACTION STEP: Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal anything in your heart that does not glorify and honor God. Be honest with yourself; be honest with the Holy Spirit. He knows already. He just wants you to acknowledge it. Remember, whatever we deny cannot be healed.
Next, write what the Holy Spirit reveals to you in your journal. Ask Him to pray for you. Write down the prayer as well.
Lastly, release those things in your heart (unforgiveness, offense, pride, anger, strife) to God and allow Him to share with you how to move forward in transforming into the likeness of Jesus. As you continue to spend time with Him daily, He will reveal more of Himself to you, and He will divulge more of you to yourself. When you can honestly look at your heart from His perspective of the love He has for you, you will begin to change.
I pray that the peace of God that surpasses all understanding guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
