Love HarderSample

I Love You Because...

Maybe it’s not on purpose but we have been taught to love incorrectly. Remember that song you were taught as a child? The words went like this...”Oh how I love Jesus, Oh how I love Jesus, Oh how I love Jesus, because He first loved me”

Do you hear that loud BECAUSE?

I remember being asked early on in my marriage, “Why do you love your wife?”

And, in order to come across as SUPER LOVING, I scrolled my mind for the most romantic words I could find. I extolled her virtue and called her blessed. I came up with a mixture of Proverbs 31, Songs of Solomon, and 70’s R&B lyrics. It all incorporated the word BECAUSE.

“ I love my wife because she is...I love her because she makes me feel...I love her because she is amazing at...”

In every sentence, there is a loud BECAUSE!

It’s hard for us to LOVE HARDER because (there’s that word again) we have been taught that love is transactional.

Love has been explained as something that happens in response to something else. When the truth is...love just...IS!

“If you know not love, then you know not God, for God IS love!” 1 John 4:8

God is LOVE. Love IS God!

God doesn’t love us because of anything we did. He just loves us. And when we begin to understand the true nature of love, we can begin to LOVE HARDER because we recognize LOVE doesn’t need an exercise or an initiation in order to exist.

Love doesn’t need a BECAUSE!

In Jesus’ sermon on the mount, He says, “...love your enemies and pray for anyone who mistreats you. Then you will be acting like your Father in heaven.”

This is the very core of LOVE HARDER! Love when you don’t expect to love and no one else expects you to love.

Learn to LOVE HARDER...then you will be acting like your Father in heaven...BECAUSE...after all, God IS love!