Love…Where Are You?

Written by Lynn Mosher

What is love? Is it definable? Is it a feeling? A passion? Is love always romantic? The dictionary defines love as, “a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person, a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection for a parent, child, or friend, sexual desire, affectionate concern for the well-being of others, the benevolent affection of God for His creatures or the reverent affection due from them to God.”

Passions and feelings can be fickle; they can change. So, where do you look for a  love that lasts?

* in a bar
* in a friend
* in a marriage
* in a father or mother
* in a boyfriend or girlfriend?

Is it found…

* in status
* in things
* in money
* in a career
* in notoriety
* in possessions
* in power or position?

Where is this love?

If you’re looking for love in the people or things in the above lists, you’re looking in all the wrong places. You must first look inward. If you have no love within you, you will not be able to give love to another.

Do you yearn for that special love, the kind of love that believes in you, nurtures you, encourages you, supports you, comforts you, is always there for you? Do you wonder if this elusive, unchanging, lasting-forever-kind-of-love exists? It does exist.  This love comes in the person of Jesus Christ.

You love yourself and others, you find that perfect love, when you give your heart to Jesus. He loves you. Have you loved Him back? The disciple John wrote in one of his letters, “We love Him because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19, NKJV)

You have been loved with an everlasting, all-sacrificing, all-forgiving, unconditional, perfect love. You are beloved. Cherished. To die for. Jesus says to you, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you.” (John 15:16a, NKJV)

You are the one He loves; He gave His life for you. “This is My body which is given for you.” (Luke 22:19 NKJV)

The apostle Paul wrote, “Long before [God] laid down earth’s foundations, He had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of His love,” (Eph. 1:4a, The Message). When you know this kind of precious love, you will begin to truly love yourself and others. Your love life will be in order.

So, what or whom do you love? If I asked you to answer, without thinking, what you love the most, what would be your immediate response? Your boyfriend or girlfriend, your spouse, your children, your car, your bank account, your physical appearance, your iPod, your cell phone?

Jesus asks you, “Do you love Me more than these others?” (John 21:15, TLB)

“We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in His love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect.” (1 John 4:16-17a NLT)

May you know this perfect love.