Faithful Love

We began studying "The Five Love Languages of Children" in Sunday School this week.

It made me wonder...

What is love?

As I felt the Holy Spirit nudging me (as I had asked), I was led to do a word search on "love" in the Bible. I want to point out that sometimes we don't get the nudge because we don't ask for it.

I was stopped in my tracks with the very first verse. From Exodus 20:6..."but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commands".

In Exodus 20, God's Ten Commandments are recorded. And in the verses just before this one, God warns us not to make idols to bow down to. He seriously tells us that He is a "jealous God"...meaning that He wants our time, our effort...our love.

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Little do we realize how badly we need to give it to Him.

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Faithful Love...

He gives His faithful love to us, even though it came at the highest price possible.

Faithful Love...

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His faithful love fills us.

The faithful blessings of a friendship that will never fail me. Something I can barely describe through any form of expression. A heart feeling. Like coming out of the cold winter into a glorious spring. Like cuddling up beside a warm fire after being out in the frigid snow. Like having the summer to relax and breath after a hectic school schedule. Like slipping into your "skinny jeans" after years of battling weight issues (still pushing my big toe through the leg...).

Words fail to accurately describe that heart feeling.

Worry-free. Care-free.

Hopeful...in fact...brimming with hope.

Secure.

Satisfied, at least for a time.

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Enjoying God. Feeling embraced and fully accepted by Him. Despite our imperfections.

No pressures...no worries...no stress.

Just you and Him.

Just live it.

Resting in His faithful love. And understanding that we can never compare it with love as we speak of it.

There is love...then there is faithful love.

We say we love so many things. We love watching "Grey's Anatomy". We love eating at the Melting Pot. We love to shop. We love to go on vacation. But when the power goes out...we run out of money...or we are unable to get time off from work, our love for such things take a back seat.

Are you faithful enough to climb the utility pole, risking life & limb to fix the power? Are you faithful enough to spend your household bill money on other things? Are you faithful enough to quit your job and head for the shore? Is that love?

God's love is faithful, Friends. It's the kind of love that is genuine and true. It's not based on what we do or don't do. It's the kind of love that is faithfully put into action, time and again. It's unconditional. It's perfect...because God is perfect. No matter what, His love remains.

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"Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. You must not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the fathers' sin, to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commands." Exodus 20:4-6

He faithfully fulfilled this promise when He sent Jesus to the cross...and He faithfully continues to love us even now.

That's love.