“Abide in My love.” John 15:9 NKJV
“Having the right kind of feeling for the wrong person or wrong things is not where love is found.”
My thoughts today ask “where is love?”
Isn’t love a wonderful feeling? Maybe that’s why people talk about “falling in love,” only to later find themselves falling out of love. If love is just a feeling, however grand it may be at the moment, then you can lose it as readily as you felt it. Feelings are whimsical, changing with your moods and circumstances.
Thinking love is no more than a feeling may be the reason that some people find themselves having the right kind of feeling for the wrong person or the wrong things. If it’s love, they reason, it must be right. If it feels so right it must not be wrong. The problem is a dangerous misunderstanding of love. Be very aware of this; the right kind of feeling does not make it the right kind of thing.
Love does feel wonderful, and it should! Love does produce incredible feelings as it should, but those feelings are the fruit of love not the root of love. Love is rooted in your will, and then expressed in your emotions. For love to fully be what it can and should be, your will needs to be firmly anchored in God’s will and your love planted deeply in God’s love.
There is an insightful prayer of the Apostle Paul that is particularly relevant to my previous statement, “I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources He will give you mighty inner strength . . and I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in Him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” Ephesians 3:16-19 NLT.
Where your love is rooted will evidence its reality and reliability. If it rests only on your feelings, what will be left when your emotions differ from now? When love resides in what is eternal, you discover that love is also eternal, not subject to yours or others’ transient moods and whims.
Love is a wonderful thing when you find it. Everybody is looking for that; not everyone finds it. You will only find your full capacity to give and receive love when you abandon your life to God’s will, and allow yourself to receive and give God’s love. That’s where real love is found. Your will and love are inseparable; either without the other is incomplete. “When you obey Me, you remain in My love, just as I obey My Father and remain in His love. I have told you this so that you will be filled with My joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!” John 15:10-11 NLT.
Here is Jesus’ wise counsel: “Abide in Me . . My words abide in you . . abide in My love . . keep My commandments . . love one another as I have loved you . . your joy will be full.” Read John 15:1-12 NKJV. Do that and your will find where love is! Trust me; God’s way is always the right way. It cannot be otherwise.
My prayer for you today is that your love finds it source in God, and is real and lasts.