Love – God's Precious Gift

Loving God and others is a precious gift. To love God with your complete being calls for the ultimate in reaching out beyond yourself.  Listen to these words from 1 Corinthians 13: "Love does not seek its own good, but always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” Loving others is imperative for your own well-being.

God's love satisfies the soul like nothing else can do, but it's your responsibility to surrender yourself to him. Loving God with your complete being keeps the soul from contamination, which would build a bridge to alienation and separation. God redeems the soul from the power of sin and death.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 describes what happens as you surrender your complete being to Christ. "May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, your soul and body be kept blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Because God is faithful, he will do it.                         

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You know that with all our heart and soul that not one single promise which the Lord your God has given you has ever failed to come true. Every single word has come true.

~Joshua 23:14 God’s Word Translation

 

Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him.

~Psalm 62:1 New International Version

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The Mystery and Power of God's Gift of Love

An intriguing mystery of life has to do with the power of love. Perhaps the reason love is a mystery has to do with its ability to influence and change people when nothing else could. Given its power and mystery, its little wonder the word is used so loosely in clichés and meaningless conversations.

The eighth chapter of The Song of Solomon has these descriptive lyrics: "Love is as strong as death, it's jealousy as unyielding as the grave. It burns like a blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love, rivers cannot wash it away."

Solomon is referring to commitment that's anchored in a bond of trust and respect so it can withstand the trials and test all relationships must endure. Anyone who’s experienced love as strong as death and as unyielding as the grave realizes it's a gift you’ve received from God to be given to others. That makes its strength a mystery and reveals its power.  

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And I pray that you, rooted and founded in love yourselves, may be able to grasp (with all Christians) how wide and long and deep and high is the love of Christ – and to know for yourselves that love so far above our understanding. So will you be filled through all your being with God himself!

~Ephesians 3:18-19 Phillips – New Testament in Modern English

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Subscribe to the Attitudes Answers podcast on your favorite podcast platform to hear this and other 2-minute features 3 days every week.