Love Never Fails
The bridge between two human hearts is built with bricks made of trust. Simply put, we can never possibly have an intimate relationship with someone we cannot believe in. In healthy relationships we often speak of being 'in love' but perhaps speak too little of being 'in faith'.
Every meaningful relationship you will ever have depends upon trust to grow, develop and mature into intimacy. We must believe in someone, before we can receive love from anyone. You must be found trustworthy by someone before you are worthy of their secret places of the heart. The human soul is fragile and when we give it away without foresight and due diligence we can suffer serious damage and harm.
What does it mean to have a relationship that is built upon both faith and love? What is faith? "Faith is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see." (Heb. 11:1) Faith is not the wishful thinking of an overactive imagination. Faith is based on a reality of truth that enables us to move forward in relationship. In the context of human relationships, faith grows in an environment where people can be counted worthy of trust. When people are consistent in keeping their 'word', faith grows and deepens. Faith is always rooted in a revelation of character. When someone is consistent in their actions and words..... we grow to know and trust them. When someone is consistently displaying the virtues of true love we are able to be intimate with them. Words and actions have to meet in the middle of the bridge we call relationship.
If someone is not true to their word on a consistent basis, they are not worthy of our trust. You can't really love someone who is inconsistent. You may lust after them. You may seek to change them. You may have a fantasy about them....but you can't love them. Perhaps the struggle in relationships is over our understanding of what love is. If you don't know what love is, you guarantee you'll never truly experience it.
Let me help you define what love really is by sharing a well known and clear understanding from the New Testament, "Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Love will last forever. ( 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7)
We don't 'fall' into love as much as we grow into it. Love and faith are meant to have true substance to them. The spiritual reality is that three things will endure forever: faith, hope and love... and the greatest of these is love. No one is worthy of our 'undying' love who will not lay down their life down for us as well. Our ability to really love someone is rooted in our ability to believe in them. When trust is broken ( and it will be in all human relationships) we need special grace to repent of sin and forgive. A breach in trust cannot be ignored...it must be addressed, repaired and restored to allow the relationship to move forward.
We cannot repair a broken heart in our own strength. We need an ongoing and never ending source of perfect love in our lives. Jesus longs to be that source. Jesus said, "The greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends." Jesus truly laid down his life for us. His love is the foundation upon which all other relationships can be built upon. You can't love someone intimately you do not believe in. You cannot believe in someone who is not faithful and true. Jesus is all of that and he stands ready to heal and restore our broken hearts. Believe.... and love.
Jim
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