Love

Love:  an intense feeling of deep affection

Whether we admit it or not, we all want to be loved.  We want to be loved by family, we want to be loved by friends, we want to be loved by the other gender, and we want to be loved continually.

In my Bible study last night with my daughters we where discussing love.  We came to the part of 1 John where love is defined.

"...God is Love" 1 John 4:8

not only does John say it once, but he repeats it:

"...God is Love..." 1 John 4:16

It's hard to be a Christian and NOT bring God into the equation when we define love, because love is His essence, its His nature, and its who He is. 

We can try to define love in so many ways, and usually we fall so short of what love is...

found this definition online:

Love: feel a deep romantic or sexual attachment to

Notice the word "or".... here is the issue we replace the word "lust" with "love" and call it the same thing.  Its not.

With love we can (and usually do) feel a deep romantic attachment to, but the definition adds the "or", love in the marital relationship has to have both.

We want love, we need love, we crave love.

I want, need, and crave love.  I want it from my wife, from my friends, and from my family.  We need all three to function emotionally as a complete person.

God is "Agape", God is unconditional love.  He loves me unconditionally.  He loves me not because of who I am, but because of who He is.  He loves me not because He has to, but because He wants to.  He loves me not for who I am, but for who He actually sees.  He loves me in spite of my shortcomings, my impatience, my inabilities, my faults, my failures, my instability, my mistakes, my lack of faith, my doubt, my fears, my personality, my hesitations, my lack of obedience, my past, my present, my future, and whatever else gets in the way.

WhY?  Because He wants to, He HAS to, its who He is..... God is love.

I came to a harsh reality last night, as I thought about love and me.

It's hard to love me, but thank you God that you do. 

"Help those that I love to know that I love them, even when I don't act like it"

Chris