So many times when we think of “being in love”, the connotations are that it is something that happens to us. It’s something mysterious, aspirational, and ultimately out of our control. While it is mysterious in a way, it’s most certainly not out of our control. This misconception has unfortunately hurt many marriages because it subtly leads us away from the true nature of love.
True love is an action first. It’s a choice. As Lewis has chosen, we must also choose to stay “in love”. God has graciously given us the ability to choose love and act accordingly, but we need his help.
Defining love without Jesus is an exhausting exercise at best. This is because we need an absolute standard—a method of verifying and validating the actions of love. “Why should I love someone when I don’t feel like loving them?” Without a standard, love is whatever we feel it to be at any given moment. Our version of love is tossed every which way like waves in a storm. It’s unreliable, fleeting, and unsustainable. In short, it’s not actually love, it’s something else.
Everyone wants to love and to be loved, but not everyone understands or wants to pay its price. If we resist the actions of love, it is not love we desire. We want something else… something costless, shallow, and without true consequence—without power.
The love we experience in Christ and live out by the power of the Holy Spirit is the true kind. It’s life changing and life-sustaining. It’s not always easy but it is always worth it. The question is, do you really want love? Or do you want something else?
If it is, in fact, love that you want, there is good news: choose love and you will have it! It’s all yours, but first, look to Jesus! Let God’s Word define love—what it is, how you receive it from God, and how you give it—and you will experience a deeper love than you ever imagined.
Stay fierce,
Ryan & Selena
truelove #fiercemarriage #31daypursuit