Daily Devotional by Rick Warren from Purpose Driven Connection
... That you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Deuteronomy 30:20 (NIV)
The birth of Jesus reflects the truth that love is a choice and a commitment. You choose to love or you choose not to love.
Today we've bought into this myth that love is uncontrollable, that it's something that just happens to us; it's not something we control. In fact, even the language we use implies the uncontrollability of love. We say, "I fell in love," as if love is some kind of a ditch. It's like I'm walking along one day and bam! - I fell in love. I couldn't help myself.
But I have to tell you the truth - that's not love. Love doesn't just happen to you. Love is a choice and it represents a commitment.
There's no doubt about it, attraction is uncontrollable and arousal is uncontrollable. But attraction and arousal are not love. They can lead to love, but they are not love. Love is a choice.
You must choose to love God; he won't force you to love him (Deuteronomy 30:20). You can thumb your nose at God and go a totally different way. You can destroy your life if you choose to do that. God still won't force you to love him. Because he knows love can't be forced.
And this same principle is true about your relationships: you can choose to love others, but God won't force you to love anyone.
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
True Love
God created man and woman to be a suitable helper for each other(Gen 2:18-22). We know that God has prepared someone for each of us, but the question is how do we know that he/she is the one for us? How if we mistakenly pick someone, who isn't our soul mate? And is that even possible to end up with someone, who isn't meant to be with us? How about people with a "gift of singleness"? I don't know the answer exactly, but I want to share my opinion about this matter.
True love is about sacrifices like Jesus died on the cross for our sins, which is the biggest love that ever exist(John 3:16). I don't say that we have to do the same if we want to love others, we are nothing compared to Jesus. However, the love that God has shown us is our guidance how we should love, which is sacrificially. Therefore, instead of finding Mr/Mrs right to satisfy our needs, we are the one who should prepare ourselves to be Mr/Mrs right. We can't depend on our mate to satisfy our needs because he/she is mere human that imperfect and will disappoint us one day. We can only depend on God in every aspect of our life since He is trustworthy and His love never changed.
Preparing ourselves to be Mr/Mrs right doesn't means that we will be perfect to our lover. We just keep learning to be better by focusing to serve others rather than our selves. Of course by serving others doesn't means we give whatever he/she demands, we should know what is the best for him/her and give our best support to help him/her to achieve that. This include our rebuke when he/she falls in bad habit or something that estrange him/her from God.
In conclusion, we need to focus on our relationship with God first, before we be able to understand love and to love others. And for a gift of singleness, I believe only a chosen one who is given the gift so that he/she can be used by God amazingly, just like Mother Teresa for example.
I know I still have unanswered questions, but one thing for sure, God always wants the best for us and He never intended to harm and neglect us, for He have plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and future (Jer 29:11). So, be patient and build deeper relationship with God because He makes things beautiful in time. DEO GRATIAS!!!
True love is about sacrifices like Jesus died on the cross for our sins, which is the biggest love that ever exist(John 3:16). I don't say that we have to do the same if we want to love others, we are nothing compared to Jesus. However, the love that God has shown us is our guidance how we should love, which is sacrificially. Therefore, instead of finding Mr/Mrs right to satisfy our needs, we are the one who should prepare ourselves to be Mr/Mrs right. We can't depend on our mate to satisfy our needs because he/she is mere human that imperfect and will disappoint us one day. We can only depend on God in every aspect of our life since He is trustworthy and His love never changed.
Preparing ourselves to be Mr/Mrs right doesn't means that we will be perfect to our lover. We just keep learning to be better by focusing to serve others rather than our selves. Of course by serving others doesn't means we give whatever he/she demands, we should know what is the best for him/her and give our best support to help him/her to achieve that. This include our rebuke when he/she falls in bad habit or something that estrange him/her from God.
In conclusion, we need to focus on our relationship with God first, before we be able to understand love and to love others. And for a gift of singleness, I believe only a chosen one who is given the gift so that he/she can be used by God amazingly, just like Mother Teresa for example.
I know I still have unanswered questions, but one thing for sure, God always wants the best for us and He never intended to harm and neglect us, for He have plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and future (Jer 29:11). So, be patient and build deeper relationship with God because He makes things beautiful in time. DEO GRATIAS!!!
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