Word of Prayer: What is God’s real love?

By Guest Columnist Jay Cook

Every Saturday night (when I was a child) we watched it – The Love Boat, that is.  Did you?  Captain Stubing seemed so wise, Gopher seemed so out-of-touch, Isaac seemed so interesting, Julie seemed so sweet, and Dr. Bricker seemed, well, I don’t know what he seemed like.

It was funny, interesting, and made us think their version of love was really love.  And then I grew up.  Love isn’t sappy.  Love isn’t fleeting.  Love isn’t magical.  Love is a whole lot bigger.  And it is not created on a boat or found by setting a “course for adventure.”

When I became a Christian (also as a child), I began to understand more and more about real love.  Love wraps many emotions into something beyond definition.  Love is centered on a commitment that should never be set aside.  However, Jesus did express how love is supremely demonstrated – not in buying gifts or chocolates – not in finding the “perfect” card.  Because real love changes us, Jesus said, “No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

Don’t you wish you saw that kind of love on display?  Don’t you wish we loved our spouses, our children, and our neighbors like that?  Don’t you wish more of us allowed real love to change us into the kind of people that make a difference instead of the kind of people that seem to only find fault in everything and everyone?

When we try to create our own version of love, it never becomes real love.  Perhaps that is why so many can’t seem to “find” love.  They keep trying to “fall in love,” but keep climbing out of the hole they fell into.  That kind of love is primarily based on how one feels (our emotions), and our emotions fluctuate as often as the weather in Mississippi does.

How are we defining love?  Too often, we try to mimic what we see in the media (like on The Love Boat).  Too often, we take the advice of people with a platform, even though they have no expertise in the issue (and their personal lives prove that they don’t).  Too often, we look everywhere except where we should.

What if we took to heart what the Bible tells us in 1 John 4:8: “God is love”?  What if we realized that love can be experienced in our lives if we accept the One who offers it to us – namely Jesus, as recorded in 1 John 4:9: “God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through him”?  What if we realized that we CAN experience real love, but only because the One who is love makes it possible, as recorded in 1 John 4:19: “We love because he first loved us”?

God really does love us.  God doesn’t turn a blind eye to our sin, but He does love us.  And He wants us to experience His love – a love that changes us.  He loves us, but He wants us to love Him.  That means we must accept His love on His terms, and Jesus told us what those are in John 14:15: “If you love me, you will keep my commands.”  Do you?  Will you?

February is thought of as the month of love.  I sincerely hope you experience that love – real love.  But I also hope that we all realize how it can happen and by whom it is given.
 

EDITOR’S NOTE: Jay Cook is the senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Canton. He is married to Kristi Cook, and the two have two children.