When it comes to love

It is difficult to write about love without sounding superficial. When I think about love, besides all other aspects, two warnings arise. Firstly, the modern world encourages us to look for love in all of the wrong places, it says that being single is something to be ashamed of. Instead, God’s Word tells us this: Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. (Proverbs 4:23)

This warning is given for a reason, because this is a big problem. We are willing to give our heart away to anyone and we do it over and over again. In this case, what is left of our hearts for our future husband or wife? Paul the Apostle encourages us „not to be conformed to this world.“ (Romans 12:2) For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (Romans 8:6) Otherwise, as a result we might not receive what God has planned for our lives because we are too busy pleasing everyone in this world and making our own path.

The other issue has to do with one other warning, this time from the Song of Solomon 2:7b – Do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases. Often we want to stir up love ourselves because of our impatience, but this will only make things more complicated and cause even more confusion in our hearts and lives. Again I ask, what will remain of our hearts this way?!

The source of both of those issues is our need for love. We all want to be loved but we also need it – this is the way we were created. We can try out every way we can find in this world to fulfill that need and for a little while those ways might even seem to work. But there is only one who can give us that perfect love – our Lord. Or as one modern metaphor says, there is a God-shaped hole in our hearts, so it makes sense that only God can fill it.

Song of Solomon 8:7: Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it. Love is the most powerful phenomenon in this life so lets not wreck it. We are all children of God, he has made us beautiful and worthy, and when the time comes, he will give us someone to share our life with.

He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (1 John 4:8) He himself is love! If we walk with him, we walk in love. In him we have everything we need. Amen?

Nele Otto