The Enduring Nature of True Love
Psalm 109:4a
For my love they are my adversaries…
Perhaps the most misunderstood subject of them all is the subject of love. In a lust-craved society where “love” is defined with certain expectations and various levels of satisfying performance and emotional highs, many only associate it with “feel-good” experiences.
Should they ever become confronted by truth about themselves which produces negative feelings of guilt or shame, then they associate the same as “hate” speech. However, love is no more based upon emotions, as truth is lies! Love can produce good emotions, but good emotions will never produce, nor should they become a foundation for true love.
If your understanding of love is based entirely on feelings, then what will happen to your love when the feelings are gone? Some would say, “Well, I know I don’t love her because I just don’t feel the same way about her anymore!” If this is the case, then love was never in the picture to start with!
True love is enduring! It is a resolve to remain committed through the good times and the bad! It is a decision. It is true to principle before passion. That’s why those who really love you are willing to get in your face to confront issues, regardless of how the confrontation makes you feel!
That’s why God gets in our face about our sin; not because He hates us, but because He loves us too much to see us destroy ourselves in sin. I’m glad for the day I experienced a very painful, yet liberating “intervention”, when at last I was made to face myself in the mirror for who I really was, a sinner headed for Hell without Christ!
It was the best day of my life! Why? Because it was that truth that set me free. I was finally free from the deceptive lies of religion and the devil, who both told me I was ok the way I was. I was finally given an “opt-out” of sin and condemnation! I finally realized for the first time in my life just how special I was in the eyes of God; for if He did not care for me, He would have left me alone in my sins, and would not have come by my way to show me where I was wrong, and how I could be made right through His redemptive plan. Yes, He loves me!
Friend, understand today that God loves you just the same. Please do not become His adversary because of truth which confronts, convicts, and requires repentance in your life!
~ Pastor Gary Caudill
For my love they are my adversaries…
Perhaps the most misunderstood subject of them all is the subject of love. In a lust-craved society where “love” is defined with certain expectations and various levels of satisfying performance and emotional highs, many only associate it with “feel-good” experiences.
Should they ever become confronted by truth about themselves which produces negative feelings of guilt or shame, then they associate the same as “hate” speech. However, love is no more based upon emotions, as truth is lies! Love can produce good emotions, but good emotions will never produce, nor should they become a foundation for true love.
If your understanding of love is based entirely on feelings, then what will happen to your love when the feelings are gone? Some would say, “Well, I know I don’t love her because I just don’t feel the same way about her anymore!” If this is the case, then love was never in the picture to start with!
True love is enduring! It is a resolve to remain committed through the good times and the bad! It is a decision. It is true to principle before passion. That’s why those who really love you are willing to get in your face to confront issues, regardless of how the confrontation makes you feel!
That’s why God gets in our face about our sin; not because He hates us, but because He loves us too much to see us destroy ourselves in sin. I’m glad for the day I experienced a very painful, yet liberating “intervention”, when at last I was made to face myself in the mirror for who I really was, a sinner headed for Hell without Christ!
It was the best day of my life! Why? Because it was that truth that set me free. I was finally free from the deceptive lies of religion and the devil, who both told me I was ok the way I was. I was finally given an “opt-out” of sin and condemnation! I finally realized for the first time in my life just how special I was in the eyes of God; for if He did not care for me, He would have left me alone in my sins, and would not have come by my way to show me where I was wrong, and how I could be made right through His redemptive plan. Yes, He loves me!
Friend, understand today that God loves you just the same. Please do not become His adversary because of truth which confronts, convicts, and requires repentance in your life!
~ Pastor Gary Caudill