The light of God shines better through a cracked pot.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

True Love.

    *I know love can go many different ways, but I'm just using the typical guy girl relationship comparison I see on a daily basis.               
           Love. It's misused and abused daily. Do you know the real meaning of love?
  It's not lust. On TV shows, in music, it's everywhere. The consistent confusion between love and lust. Lust is a desire, one that will pass. It comes and goes. The feelings that spontaneously hit you in the stomach can weaken once some one's "oh-so-funny" personality gets old, or your physical attraction lessens at times. It can/will take time to grow to love somebody. But with lust, the feelings that you have towards somebody can start immediately. Lust is tricky. Watch out for it.
  It's not infatuation. Those emotions that come in the beginning of a relationship is infatuation. It's commonly confused with love, even more so than lust in my opinion. You feel like you can spend the rest of your life with so-n-so. They seem perfect in every way possible, their smile, their laugh, the little things they do. It's all perfect. They're constantly on your mind. All roads lead to (enter name here). The cute things they say and do. The things you wish they would say and do, tend to take over most areas of your mind. The branches in your brain with their name on it grows stronger and stronger. You immediately smile when someone says their name. Your heart beats a little faster when you see them...etc. Yes, this is infatuation. Not love.
  It isn't giving your heart to someone and expecting them to love you back. Have you noticed this? People who are desperate for love tend to think if they invest enough of their heart into a relationship, the feelings ought to be returned. "Yes, we have such deep conversations. This is true love right here!" I've even done this. Yes, we had a deep conversation and I spilled my guts. But I was the one doing it. Their response wasn't the same. I though *nod* "Uh-huh, yeah, I know what you mean." Meant, "Oh, we're clicking so well, tell me more." What happens when the love you've invested turns out to have been pushed aside? Just because you love someone, doesn't mean you've found your true love.
  Although, this is just a small portion of what love can be confused by, these are some of the big things I see.  These can be symptoms of love, but not love all in all. Now, what is love?
  Love is everlasting.  Lust & infatuation can vary from time to time. You're not going to spend your whole life infatuated with somebody. Sooner or later, you'll realize they're not completely perfect, but still love them. 
  Love means you genuinely care. You'll go to extreme lengths to make the person you love happy. Even if it ends up hurting you sometimes. When they're hurting, so are you. Your heart hurts for them through rough times, and you'll always be there as a shoulder to cry on, or a helping hand through times of trouble. When they're happy, you're right beside them doing the happy dance, cheering them on. Rather than being jealous, whenever that person you love has every thing going good for them, it makes you smile too. You also are the person they can count on to keep them grounded, who helps them remember who they really are, and what they are meant to be. You make it priority not to let them down, or to ever hurt them. You genuinely, truly care.
  Love is unconditional. No matter what happens, I'll still love you. People have a hard time with this one these days. We're supposed to continue to love even when someone doesn't meet the expectations we've created. Once they've made a bone head move, and we want to hire a heavy weight champion to beat them! We still love them no matter their actions. Matthew 18:21-22, "Then Peter came up to Jesus saying, 'Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?' Jesus said to him, 'I do not say seven times, but seven times seventy times seven'." Why? Because you love them. Jesus died and forgave you because He LOVED you. People take commitment so lightly these days.  Aren't you glad He didn't?
  Love is sacrificial.  As people are screaming at Jesus for committing NO crimes, as nails are puncturing His hands, as the pain intensifies and He sees the people He's dieing for, Jesus makes this cry, "Lord, forgive them, they know not what they do."  I don't know about you, but I'd say, "Heck with you ungrateful people!"  I would summon 100 angels to bring me home! Yes, that's true sacrifice. Nothing you can get from the just anyone..
  Love is blind. Even when you look your worse, love remains. This is where lust can be confused with love. Once the physical attraction is gone, you continue loving them. You love them as a whole. It's greater than skin deep, because love is based on their heart also.
  Love is this, and oh so much more! Not to be confused with anything else, love is love. Something even greater to define love is this: GOD IS LOVE.
  You knew it was coming. Yes, God is love. Completely flawless, amazing, awe-inspired love. The love that will never leave you. That will return your love. That will go to the the greatest lengths you wouldn't even think of to make you smile. That will love you, despite anything you will ever or can ever do.  Jesus displays amazing love, saying we're to die for. No, not just die, dieing under the most gruesome conditions, all for you. This is the love that knows you have a bald spot, a skin condition that might make others cringe, and flaws society shuns. He thinks you're perfect despite that, and loves you unfathomably when your physical features are at it's worst. He sees our heart.
  Yes.. This is love.
  God is in love with me. And as you're reading this, just know, He loves you in this way also.

  Thanks for reading! Have a blessed day!

1 Corinthians 13

Love Is the Greatest
 1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.  4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
 8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages[b] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.
 11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.[c] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
 13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

 
 
 

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