Day 22 - July 6, 2009

Day 22: Love is faithful

I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. Then you will know the Lord.

—Hosea 2:20

TODAY’S DARE

Love is a choice, not a feeling. It is an initiated action, not a knee-jerk reaction. Choose today to be committed to love even if your spouse has lost most of their interest in receiving it. Say to them today in words similar to these, “I love you. Period. I choose to love you even if you don’t love me in return.”

I told Steve, " I love you. Inspite of everything going on right now. I love you even if you don't love me in return..." After I said this I preceded to bed for the night. I did this so he did not feel any obligation to talk to me about what I said. I prayed.

The questions for this dare in the book are:

Why is this kind of love impossible without the love of Christ beating in your heart? How does His presence within you enable you to love, even when it's primarily one-sided?

My thoughts are it is impossible because we are born only knowing how to love based on how we feel and how a person makes us feel. Today this type of love is rooted in the many divorces and broken homes in America. To love as God loves is to love even when you are rejected, even when people are unloving, unforgiving, evil toward you, does not met your needs or expectations, when they live sinning against you. I read Hosea yesterday, how God showed Hosea through his marriage to a prostitute, His love for us.

When love is primarily one-sided, I have begin to feel God's presence urging me to love not focusing on what I am not getting. His presence leads me to love when I don't feel it. It's possible because God is filling me with His love, His love brings me out of myself and into Him. Brings me to not think as I would, rather to think, "Maybe I can do this or that for Steve..." Knowing I will not get a reaction, my love could be rejected and I will not hear the words, "I love you" from my husbands lips. Love becomes less of me and more of God. I have become less dependent on words or my fulfillment. Showing love, fills me.

Here are two scriptures which encouraged me this morning.

Has not the LORD made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. "I hate divorce," says the LORD God of Israel, "and I hate a man's covering himself with violence as well as with his garment," says the LORD Almighty. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith. Malachi 2:15-16

This confirmed God's will for me to continue.

Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Ecc. 4:9-10

This verse really showed me, through loving Steve, I am allowing God to use me to pick him up. Through God's love, I can see, I cannot leave him alone. I must be fulfill my purpose, I must continue fighting. Enduring for the fulfillment of God's will.