Echoes of Truth
February 24th
Theme:Love Is A Choice
Love, however, is the love of will, not of preference or attraction. It is based on an intellectual, conscious choice to seek the welfare of its object. – John MacArthur
Many in the Church in many ways have relegated love to the wave of intense emotions, uncontrollable feelings, a force. How wrong we are! God’s love expressed to us was not a matter of His emotions and His feelings.
God’s love is beyond how He feels. It is beyond force. It is not about emotions. It is always about His choice, His personal willingness to love and act by it. This is exactly how we must also see love and act on love.
When Jesus said to love God with all we have got (Matthew 22:37), He meant we had to choose to love God. Love for God does not spring up suddenly. It is not something to await in the expectation that there will be an outpouring. Love is first expressed by the willingness to take actions that begin with choice in the benefit of the one we are to love.
In other words, to love God, we must first make the decision that we are going to love Him with the whole of our hearts, minds, and strength. That choice is what the Holy Spirit considers a signal for Him to begin the work of drawing us closer and deeper into the experience of God’s love for us (Romans 5:5).
We must first acknowledge that God’s love for us began with His choice to love us in the midst of our sinfulness and failings. It is by this that we see His love at work in us and we should respond to His love in like, manner above family, self, and earthly splendor (Luke 14:26-33).
Similarly, this leads us to the intentional choice of loving others as Jesus commands (Matthew 22:39). We cannot choose to love everyone until we have first made the choice to love the Lord. When we choose to Love the Lord, we are empowered by His Spirit to love others even when we do not feel like it; that annoying neighbour, that difficult boss, that overbearing in-law, that stressful child, that malicious colleague, and many other personalities we naturally will shut love against.
True Biblical love does not begin with emotions, it begins with the choice to love with intentional actions accompanied by emotions. We must choose to love the Lord everyday just as His love for us is renewed daily (Lamentations 3:22-23).
Listen to the sermon by Voddie Baucham on love is a covenant not chemistry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqgOF6foSNs
Let Us Pray:
Father, I thank You for making the choice to love me even when I was unfaithful and sinful, I thank You for inviting me to share the same love with the people around me. Forgive me for all the times I have loved others based solely on my emotions and their actions to me. Help me Lord to love truly with all my heart, mind and strength. Holy Spirit, please continue to shed the love of Christ in my heart and help me to live a life that brings You glory, thank You Lord, in Jesus name I pray. Amen
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