What Is Love?

I think a horrible fantasy to live in is where Love is thought of as this eternal bubbly feeling that never leaves. I find that sometimes people are under this impression that love hits you and it never leaves.  I think love is something that must be maintained. I found this out several weeks after I got married.

Now many of you reading may disagree with me and that’s because you are not married or you have some abnormally great marriage where nothing goes wrong. I think love is like any other emotion. It must be maintained in order for it to be present. See, I stay mad when I continually remind myself of something that was done to me, the same thing can be said about depression. When I choose to not dwell on those things I’m not mad or depressed.

Galatians 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,..”

Galatians says that love is a fruit of the Spirit, meaning that love is something that the Holy Spirit produces in us. Now as humans we have love, but it is mostly shallow, self-serving, and short lived, but the love the Spirit produces in us is described in 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7:

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

This type of love is sacrificial, unconditional, and durable.

For me to love my wife as I should, or better yet love people the way Jesus calls me to, requires an intentional and deep relationship with the Holy Spirit.

Going into a marriage or relationship without this revelation can lead to a failed marriage, or worse stuck in a relationship that lacks love and is filled with bondage. We must go into a marriage understanding that the Holy Spirit is the one that breathes life. I have learned that a successful marriage requires two people seeking Christ, two people drinking from the fountain of life.

“ I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:1-3

The foundation of my marriage must be a relationship with the Holy Spirit or else everything else is bound to fail or be unfruitful and void of life.