Love Is . . .

By Melisa Manampiring, Indonesia

Love is a word that we often hear. Everyone has experienced it. Love is a wonderful thing and everyone wants to love and be loved.

Love is a part of human life. People cannot live without love. Each of us needs relationships with other people, with friends, family, and that special boy or girl. We were all created that way.

But love is often misunderstood. Some people think that love is all about receiving, not giving. Others think that love is about feeling happiness all the time.

True love is different.

Love isn’t always effortless and natural. Love doesn’t mean that there are no tough times. Instead, it means holding on to a commitment to care for someone in spite of those hard times.

Love is about giving what we can of ourselves when we see the needs of others, even if the person refuses to be grateful or to respond to us.

Love often requires sacrifice.

Sacrificial love was shown two thousand years ago, when Jesus Christ died on the cross. “For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Love from God is everlasting. It doesn’t depend on conditions for it to take root and grow.

True love redeems. It is given despite the other person’s faults and weaknesses, but works to help him or her out of them. “… God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8).

Love is the most beautiful grace that God has given to us. It is not an emotion dependent on whether we like or dislike a person. Love is action—a deliberate and unconditional working towards what is best for another person.

May the Lord lead your hearts
into a full understanding and expression of the love of God
and the patient endurance that comes from Christ.
2 Thessalonians 3:5