Love is a Choice

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that reject fear and champion faith. It emphasizes the importance of the word of God and the love of Jesus. Love is described as a decision, a choice to put someone else above oneself, and it should be modeled after how Jesus loves us. The key to successful relationships is to have God at the center and prioritize a relationship with Him. The message encourages belief in the truth of the scriptures and emphasizes that there is only one truth. Welcome to Fear No Fear. Grace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Holy Spirit embrace you today. This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture. We reject fear in any and all forms. Fear is a spiritual force, the currency of darkness and ignorance. It's what we inherited when Adam gave up his faith and Satan uses it to keep people down. His only weapon is words. If he can get you believing or looking at words of fear, he's got you. Instead, we champion faith as an allegiance to God, as a belief and trust and loyalty to the Lord God Almighty. We accept the evidence of His word as unvarnished truth, as is, just as it's written. We get close to His perfect love through the word, and perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4.18 All scripture is taken from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Visit eBible.org John 17.20-26 Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. The glory which you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that you sent me and loved them, even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world hasn't known you, but I knew you, and these knew that you send me. I made known to them your name, and I will make it known that the love which you loved me may be in them and I in them. Ephesians 5 25 and verses 28 to 29 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly and gave himself up for her. Even so, husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself, for no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord also does the assembly. When it comes to love, Jesus is the gold standard. He decided that he would die for you before creation, John 17, 23 and 24. He set his mind to love us, Deuteronomy 7, 7. He loved us when we were at our worst, Job 11, 5 to 6. And before we could even try to do anything to deserve it, Ezra 9, 13, which we can't anyway, Ephesians 2, 4 to 5, Jesus brought us into the family, Romans 8, 19, and placed us in himself on the throne beside his Father as a gift to the Father, Ephesians 2, 6 to 9. Now that is a powerful love, one we have no hope to achieve in our human selves, Romans 8, 8. We opened with Jesus' words of prayer over his disciples and those who would come after us. He doesn't pray about power. He doesn't pray about gifts or anointing. Not that he hasn't prayed about those things, but here his focus is on relationship, the Father to Jesus and Jesus to the Father. The Father glorified Jesus and gave him glory. What does Jesus do? He turns around and gives it to us. After that, it's all about us being brought into Jesus and into the relationship of the Father and the Son, that it was a relationship established before the foundation of the world, a righteous relationship, a relationship of love. The Father's love in Jesus and Jesus passing the love into us, putting us in him and himself in us. Now the Father grants all of Jesus' prayers. Why? Jesus only prays according to the will of the Father in perfect righteousness and without any selfish agenda at all, Ephesians 1, 11-12, which means that if you believe in Jesus and he is your Savior, then the love of the Father that the Father has toward Jesus is in you and directed at you and through you at those around you. Jesus gave us his nature that gives us the ability to love like he loves, even as it lets us believe as he believes. Wait, you say, I don't believe like God does? Well, if you're a believer, you do. You believe in Jesus. The Father believes in Jesus. You believe in the Bible. The Father believes in the Bible. The Father believes both are true and have power, authority, and more potential than can be imagined. He believes all this because he made it. He knows it. He is fully persuaded the day of the truth. When we believe the same, we are believing as the Father believes. That's why getting into the Word is so important. It reveals to us God's mind, heart, and his will. It gives us the inside track on what the Father believes. We get the inside track through Holy Spirit, who can quicken the Word to our minds and our spirits, to bring it to life, to give us insight and wisdom, to understand what is written in a way the world can't, in a way the devil can't, spiritually. The world is spiritually dead. So is the devil. They may learn the words, but they can't see the meanings. That is revealed by the Father through Holy Spirit, Ephesians 1, 8-9. We don't have to rely on ourselves or our human definitions of love. I mean, what is that? It's strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties. Attraction based on sexual desire. Affection and tenderness felt by lovers. Affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests. An assurance of affection. Warm attachment, enthusiasm or devotion. Unselfish, loyal, and benevolent concern for the good of another. It goes on and on and on. Sexual embrace, amorous episodes, and objects of attachment. Not only do we use love for what in reality is only passion, we dilute the word by using it for inanimate, everyday and ordinary things. Have you ever loved a show, a food, a treat? Once you start thinking about it, it gets ridiculous. But love is so much more. It isn't an emotion. It isn't a feeling, a tingle in the nether bits. It isn't an orgasm. It isn't a good show. It isn't something that makes you feel good, accepted, soothed, or at peace. It isn't a taste, a feeling, a touch, a scent. It isn't admiration. It isn't kinship. At its core, love is a decision. It is a choice to put someone else above yourself. Not because we are being unselfish. Not because we have benevolent concern for them. No. We choose to love each other. We choose to love another human as Jesus loved us. Because Jesus loved us. How did Jesus love us? Well, he sought to bring us into fellowship with him because he was in perfect fellowship with the Father. For Jesus, love was all about getting us back to the Father. It was a decision, a choice, one made with free will. No. It's the opposite decision to the decision that Adam made. And this is a decision that Jesus did not back down from because of how he felt, or what he wanted, or what he experienced, or how people treated him or received the message. It was a decision that he made, and then he walked it out right to the end, nailed to a cross. We're called to do the same, Revelation 12.11. Now, how does this affect us day to day? I mean, we can't run around throwing our lives down for everyone, right? Right. But we are called to love each other, purely, with real love. And the more you're walking with Jesus, the easier it gets because we start to see what Jesus sees when he looks at them. And it can hit an advanced level where you stop seeing them and just see Jesus in everyone and love them. I'm still working on that one. But our personal, private relationships are often different from our relationships with the world around us. Those we choose for our mates is a whole other ballgame, even from that. It's all because of how we see Jesus in them, how much of the Lord we're viewing when we view them. Now, our relationships should be modeled not on what we see, not on what we feel, not on what we think, but on how Jesus loves us. We don't need to fall in and out of love. We don't need to have an expiry date on our love. We don't need to base it on what our partner does for us or what we do for our partner. We don't need to base it on chemistry or sexual compatibility. We don't need to base it on looks or accomplishments. We can simply choose to love our partner. Period. No matter what. Because God loved us first. 1 John 4.9 We can love. God can bring someone into our lives that is right for us on a compatibility level, and then we can love them because we choose to. On our own, this is going to have a lot of problems. In fact, on our own, we will in all likelihood fail. Just look at the marriage statistics and the choices that we make in them. I've made some doozies in my life. But with God, we can accomplish this. Matthew 19.26 We can do it as we abide in God. John 15.5 Which means that to have a truly successful love relationship, we need to have God at the center and in the most important position of that triangle. You're putting a relationship with Him before a relationship with your spouse. In turn, God will bring you and your spouse together because that's how He designed things to work. Where two are gathered in His name, things happen. Matthew 18.20 Two working together to accomplish things was always His plan. Genesis 1.27 and 31. Chapter 2 verses 18 and verse 24. If we're in Him, then He will be in us and bring us together. Sound familiar? It's the principle of the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Three but one. We are a shadow and a type of that. God, man, woman. Three but dwelling as one. 1 John 4.13-15 Now, I know there's a lot of human drama and baggage that we throw in here. Relationships, partnerships, marriages, divorces, betrayals, sexual and gender roles. And this is not the place to deal with any of it because we don't have that kind of time. But if you believe in Jesus' words in John 17.17, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. Then you have to believe what the Lord laid out in the scriptures. You may not like it, but it's true. There's only one truth. Truth is truth. There's no my truth, your truth. There is what you think and feel and believe in regards to the truth. There is your choice of how you apply that truth. Whether you reject it or not. But the truth is the truth is the truth. Period. No explanations needed. It's just true. There is a standard of righteousness that exists in this universe. It is constant. It is immutable. It cannot be compromised. It cannot be denied. It is and will always be. It is the presence of the Lord God Almighty. And there is no arguing with it. God tells us what it is. He states it. He doesn't argue or threaten or cajole. He says what it is. You can move into his yard and walk in his righteousness and be blessed. You can stay out of his yard, walk on your own and be at the mercy of the curse. It is and always has been our choice. Free will. Strength on our part. And glory, honor, power, authority and blessing on his end given to us in heaps and piles based on how righteous we are willing to let him make us. Because we cannot be even a little teensy bit righteous without abiding in Jesus and inhabiting his spirit in total obedience. This is truth. And this is the truth that we are to hold to. His truth. The truth that love is a decision. Both as a lifestyle and in our personal relationships. It doesn't just happen. It doesn't dim. It doesn't fade. It doesn't dissipate. We choose to love. Our relationships can be a love choice. Love in God and through God. We can have intimate, open, tender relationships as full of feeling, healing and warmth as we can handle. Physical, emotional and spiritual love with our partner and with God. Side by side. Three working as one. It is possible. It will end strife in your relationship. For perfect love casts out all fear. And strife is fear based. 1 John 4.18 Aside from giving of the sun for our sins. John 3.16 This is the single greatest gift God has ever given us. To love as He loves. By choice. By grace. Through faith. In Him. Perfect fellowship with one another on whatever level we are dealing with that human being. Spousal, dating, family, friend, workplace, acquaintance or total stranger on the street. We can do it. Jesus said so. And He cannot lie because He only says what the Father tells Him to. John 5.19 and 12.49 Because as Hebrews 13.8 tells us. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. Amen. Our daily affirmation of God's love is Ephesians 2.4-10 God loves us so much that He doesn't leave us to mess things up. But as a loving Father He guides us and teaches us. Because He made us in His perfect Son Jesus. So that we also may be perfect through Jesus' righteous nature. Which He gives us by grace through faith. He really, really, really wants us with Him forever. God is a good God. He loved us before we were able to love Him. Enabling us to love by loving us first. Everyone on this planet who has ever experienced love does it because God loved them first. He loves us so much. He is fair and just. Not charging us with sin for that which we don't know is sin. Romans 5.13 Covering millions of people who died before they knew of God or even heard of Christ. All over the world. That is a just God. God isn't some ball of anger waiting to kill everything that looks sideways at Him. Yahweh God is a loving God who seeks to save us. All of us. Especially those who cuss Him or try not to believe in Him at all. The Lord God Almighty in all of His grandeur, aspects and mystery chose to love us. We were created out of love. We were created to love. We were created to exist and walk in perfect love in which there is no fear. Love thrives in an atmosphere of faith. An atmosphere of faith thrives when fed in the Word. The Word is truth and is love itself. It is a circle of strengthening and growth in the things that are basic parts of God's nature. And we're given Jesus as a free gift in which to walk and be perfected in these things so that we don't have to do it on our own strength or steam. God gives us the tools, the ability and the natural inclination to choose love. Accept His love today as you're showing love to those around you. He loves you more than you know without Jesus to show it to you. It's worth it to let Jesus start to show you the Father's love. It is an endless sea and its depths are meant for you. He loves you so much. As we close, remember that you have worth. You are precious and valuable. Declare this. Today, God loves that I, now you, fill in the blank. Was it a meal you made? A smile you gave? Did you get out of bed? Read? Put on socks? There's no wrong answers here. There is no end to God's love and no end to the things about you that He loves each and every day. Pick one. And remember, the Lord loves you just because you're you. 1 John 4, 9-10 tells us, By this, God's love was revealed in us, that God had sent His only-born Son into the world, that we might live through Him. And this is love. Not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. His perfect love turned away God's wrath because of sin. And it casts out our fear, too. See verses 18 and 19. We love because He first loved us. He just loves us. Can't get enough of us. And that is wonderful. See you next time.