Love is ... (Pt 8)

Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips. The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. (Psalm 16:1-6 ESV).

We arrive at the final characteristic of genuine love from the Apostle Paul today: Genuine love learns to deal in realities; dealing in truth. One of the biggest problems with many today is that they have a hard time dealing with reality. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if life were a straight path? The truth is each individual’s journey is circumspect, winding. I am grateful for those little bends in the path with a quiet place to sit and rest before traveling on, but we cannot escape the long, winding, and often difficult path. This is God’s means of sanctifying each of us. People often believe that they can live a life void of God. Reality is every breath we take is only because God allows us to do so. In and of ourselves we can’t do anything, especially anything of good. Our reading declares that without God we simply have no good thing (v. 2). The Apostle Paul says it this way: “Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God” (2 Corinthians 3:5). With all the social media we can be fooled to believe that everyone has a better life than we do. We see snap shots of others highlights and compare our life to those snap shots. If we could see the entire film of their day to day, we may see things are not as though they appeared. Regardless of how hard life seems we must continue to press toward the higher calling. Of course I am not suggesting we surrender to the pain and difficulty. Jesus’ death accomplishes more than a bright, painless future. He declared His purpose was to bring us “abundant life” (cf. John 10:10). If you don’t like how your life is make a decision to change it and begin right now. Then pray and ask God to help you. If you’ve ignored Him, begin by asking for forgiveness and then ask Him for help and direction. He will answer with a path of growing, genuine love for yourself and others. It will not be an easy path though it will be full of blessing and purpose.