Who’s the best lover you’ve ever had? The answer is likely different than you think.
I’m sure it’s no secret to you: None of us love well. Because, frankly, it’s just easier to be selfish. The Bible says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). I didn’t believe this was really true about me for years. I just wasn’t that terrible I thought. But over the years of my adulthood I’ve learned these words are more than true.
To love well is not to simply follow your heart, I learned, because my heart wanted to lash out or punish with silence far more often than it wanted to forgive in love. In fact, rejecting the feelings of my heart and instead, obeying the Spirit of God proved more difficult than doing what felt right. I learned the only way to love is to let Jesus love through me. When I come to Him admitting I am broken and sinful, He can give me His love and by His grace I am changed.
This may seem a silly question, but can you learn to swim without getting in the water? Can you learn to snow ski without getting the gear, riding a chair lift to the top and following the instructor down the mountain? So learning how to love cannot happen without learning the facts (you can’t do it on your own just like you can’t ski without skis) and learning from the One who is Love. Thankfully, Jesus meets us amidst shallow waves or on the bunny slopes, helping us face our fears and growing our trust in His strength. Then, if we are brave enough, He leads us to swim in the deep seas of His love.
We celebrate love on Valentine’s Day, but it is just sentimentalism without acknowledging the One who is love. Any ability to love that we possess is because we are made in His image. We love only because He first loved us, made us a little lower than the angels, and showed us how to love others. Even then, all human love is incomplete and imperfect. And you feel that, right?
The love of Jesus, though, is a complete and perfectly fulfilling love. It is everything that we are not and can never be. Our love grows cold and someday ends, but the love of God never stops.
We see this on display at the end of Jesus’ earthly life. Soldiers mocked Him. Priests and elders insulted and taunted Him. When the searing pain in His body screamed for reprieve, still He did not give in to a single selfish feeling. His lover overruled His misery.
Even on the cross He kept on loving. He would not quit, could not quit. Not ever. Because that would be contrary to His nature. Jesus demonstrated how to love not just by dying for us, but by continuing in complete surrender to the Father’s will. Surrender is the only way to know and show real love.
God is eternal and so love is eternal, never ending, unfailing. Celebrate the gift of God’s eternal love today: first that you have received love and second that you have the privilege of loving others, starting with your family. And when loving gets hard, think on this one true lover who is continually in pursuit of your heart.
May you love well because He is always loving you.
A beautiful description and reminder. Jesus kept on loving because he kept his eyes on the Father and heart on the purpose of his service and suffering. May I do the same and love, giving truly of myself in surrender to the Father’s will, as Jesus did.
Thank you Barbara.
Annmarie :)