What Is Love?

Today, I had the great pleasure of knowing that a sister of mine's daughter accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior. What a glorious day for God!!! Another child of God has been born of the Spirit! Shortly after, I began to realize how blessed my life has been in these past couple months. After having my second consecutive miscarriage, I began to wonder if the blessing of God was NOT resting on my household. But I was wrong....even though we lost the pregnancy, God has been doing a work in my marriage that is nothing short of glorious! I feel closer to my husband than I ever have, even moreso than when we first were dating because now we have a true love, and not just infatuation with one another. We have a love that has already endured great hardships, including trust issues with one another, sickness of our son, and losing two pregnancies in a row. We have seen our good days and bad days, we have laughed and we have cried. We have been there for each other when no one else was. We have blessed each other and cursed each other, and God has seen us through it all, making our marriage stronger every day! So, I wanted to share today what love means to God. I have been sharing this with others lately because God is really teaching me what it means to love someone, to love Him, and to love myself. This passage explains love in detail:

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NKJV):

"Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

This is what I believe marriage is all about. Glorifying God through loving one another in obedience to the definition God has given us of what it means to love another person. This is what I believe my husband and I striving to build our marriage upon. Do we make mistakes and trip up, and hurt each other occasionally? Yes, but God is always there to help us pick up the pieces and to learn more about loving one another. I am also learning that the kind of love God describes is for loving Him and others around us. Our two greatest commandments from Jesus were to love the Lord our God will all our hearts, souls, minds and strengths, and also to love one another as ourselves. But we have to make sure we understand the definition of love. Love is not just a feeling, love is a choice....a choice every second of every day. When faced with those who have wronged us, we are told to bless those that curse you. I have learned from practical application that this means that the day we are face-to-face with our greatest hurt inflicted by another human being, we are to look them in the eyes, forgive them and MEAN IT! Why would someone do such a thing? Because out of God's great love, compassion, and mercy for you and me, that is EXACTLY what Jesus did on the cross at Calvary. He took the punishment out of His great love for mankind to save them from their sinful nature. He did it because of the expanse of His love for us!!! He showed us what it means to love that unloveable person. And all He asks is that we do the same in gratitude and out of respect for what He has done, and out of our growing LOVE for Him and one another.

I pray in Jesus' name that God would bless you today with a new understanding of what it means to love God, and love others. I pray that God would show you in your heart and through His Word how much He loves you, and bless you with the ability to pray to Him and receive His free gift of eternal salvation. I know how much God loves you (to the best of my understanding) am I am still learning how much He loves me every day.

Some of you may be saying, "God could never forgive ME for all the wrong I have done." God's love is bigger than any sin you could commit, and He has already made the perfect way to escape your past and begin a new life. All you have to do is pray for Him to save you, admitting your sin before Him, and asking Him to cover your sins with the blood of Jesus. Admit that Jesus was perfect and sinless and that He lived, died and rose again to SAVE YOU. Then ask God to send you His Holy Spirit, so that you may be empowered to live a godly life from this day forth. I can assure that God is waiting to hear you pray that prayer, and He will bless you immediately upon hearing it. The Word says that angels in heaven will rejoice over you praying that prayer, and accepting God's free gift of salvation. When you return to your Father in heaven, it is a glorious day among men and angels! God bless you in Jesus' name, Amen.

His daughter and princess,

Sarah