Love – Not a Feeling
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God (1 John 4:7).
If you are born again, the love of God has been shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). That means the very nature of God is inside of you. But the fact that you have His nature (love) does not mean it will just flow out automatically through you to everyone else around you. Loving people is your responsibility and not God’s. You have to make the choice to walk in love, for love is a choice – you choose to love!
God is not going to force you to love anyone; He has already put His Spirit in your heart to teach you how to love and now it is up to you to listen to Him and let it out. You have to see people the way God sees them. When you imbibe this mindset, you’d respond to people based on the love of God.
Over and over again people say that when you feel like this and that then it means you love him/her. This is a borrowed thought from the world into the church. This kind of love is possessive, fickle and selfish and most often does not stand the test of time. The church has to dictate to the world and not the world dictating to the church. Love is not a feeling but a choice. This simple but powerful thought could change your life forever. It is the solution to the broken marriages, friendships and relationships seen all around us where each party feels they can’t love the other anymore or have grown out of love for each other.
There are people hurting today because they felt they loved someone and the person never loved them back. Why would you get hurt when you claim you love someone? Love doesn’t keep record of wrong. This simply means you are not supposed to be hurt by people’s actions or inactions. As a matter of fact, you are not supposed to wait for “I am sorry” when someone wrongs you. All you are called to do is to love, therefore you are to be hurting for them and not be hurt by them.
Finally
You ought to love the people around you and not to wait for a feeling before showing your love. Even if others rebuff as you try to reach out to them in love, refuse to be perturbed. Love is the greatest power in the universe and can eventually melt the hardest heart that can ever come against you.
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