Love Brings Hope!
Have you ever been hopeful because someone loved you? I have. Have you ever lost hope because someone stopped loving you? I have. But wait a minute, can someone truly love you then suddenly stop loving you? Is love that fickle? What is true love? Where does love come from? Is it just an emotion that comes and goes with the flows of life? Let us find out together what God says about love?
I want to look at I John 4:7-12 first, it says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” (ESV) This passages I believes answers most of my questions about love, how about yours? I see real love comes from God. It is not inherent in me. So, my ability to love others comes from God. It also says that if I love then I have been born of God and know God. My ability to love comes from God and it comes to me because I know God. I am able to love because of His love in me. I also see that when I love others God abides in me. It seems to me that true love cannot be fickle. It is not something I fall in and out of true love is a commitment for the betterment of the person whom I love. It also comes with a bunch of side benefits as well as the passage describes.
So, then what is true love? 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a, 13 sheds more light on the subject. It says, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (ESV) I see several important things about love that help me see it as a commitment and choice not just an emotional feeling. It is patient so it does not run away when times get tough. It is kind that means that it is always looking out for what is the best for the object of my love. It does not envy which to me says that I do not want something someone else has. It does not boast. I do not put-on airs about how great I am rather, I become humble. I am not looking to gain from it I am willing to do what is best for the person I love. The next one is the hardest for me. I am not to be irritable. I will try to better with this one. It is not resentful which means I do not get bitter or indignant when I am wronged but rather, I forgive. Then, two very critical points about love, I do not rejoice when someone else is doing wrong or ask them to participate in wrongdoing. I always rejoice when truth wins out. Then there are the all things I should bear, believe, hope and endure. So, to me I cannot be fickle with love if I am to bear, believe, hope and endure all things. I must hang in there. Because true love never ends and it is the greatest of all the gifts that God gives me.
I receive my ability to love from the Holy Spirit It is one of the gifts. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23 (ESV) It is not surprising to me that love is the first one on the list. You will also see that some of the others follow the definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13.
In order to receive the gifts from the Holy Spirit you must first get to know Jesus. If you do not know Jesus the true source of hope does not abide in you. Learn how to get the hope you need. Learn how to know Jesus.
If you have not read my previous blogs you can find them here.
You can find my book, Hope Amid Hopelessness: Our Abba Father Provides a Way Through Mental Illness here.
eBook or Audiobook versions can be found at Westbow Press or Christianbook.com at Amazon or Google
