learning to love

Love Never Fails

When we choose the way of love, it often goes against our inherent nature to fight our own corner. This is because the characteristics of love are not our natural “go-to”.

Love calls for us to travel a road less familiar. It pulls on a response that goes against the strong undercurrents of standing up for ourselves. It can initially seem weak to demonstrate patience when everything in us wants to vent frustration. Likewise, being kind, sympathetic, generous, and thoughtful, can be costly when it would be so much easier to think of ourselves first.

It Is Not Easy

It is a very high standard to follow.

Living in the way of love can feel like you’re losing. It appears as if you’re giving up ground that perhaps you should be defending. However, when it comes to love, the opposite is true. When you lose, you win, because love never fails!

In the battle to overcome evil with good, we need love and lots of it!

God is love. His essence pulsates with mercy, forgiveness, faithfulness, and truth. When we choose to love, we choose to allow the character of God to be displayed. And that is powerful.

It might not look like the power to walk in forgiveness rather than vengeance or to hold our tongue when we could very easily snap back at someone’s unkind comment. But Proverbs 16:32 says, “Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.” This is the awesome and high-calling that every single one of us has the opportunity to fight for. If we allow the ground of our hearts to be plowed up for God’s love to be planted in, then we are going to be extremely fruitful for His ingdom.

Love’s Marvelous Effects

There have been many times in my life when I have marveled at the effect of love. I think of the sweet kindness of my mother when I was a headstrong, stroppy teenager. She would fast and pray for me to come into an understanding of the goodness of God. She‘d show real selflessness by getting up in the early-hours to fight for me in prayer.

I’ve seen the power of love in my own heart when I’ve chosen to forgive an offense and bless people who have done me wrong. Love is so wonderfully freeing!

Yes, it takes courage to choose love. But once you do so and experience it, receiving it for yourself, and living in it, you just want to stay in its liberation.

To choose love is to choose life, and love never misses its target. It transforms our hearts, changes the atmosphere and environment of our homes, and ultimately permeates into the world around us.