A Lesson in Love - Love Goes the Distance

Are you someone who has never been in love or someone who has experienced relationships where love claimed to be present but its existence was in fact questionable?? 👀

I want to tell you something that will change your life! . . .

We can know what to expect from someone that loves us because God gives us example in His word. And if you've "called yourself being in love" but it didn't end in anything fruitful, you too, can still experience a love that transforms your life.

God tells us that and so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them, in 1 John 4:16.

God is literally showing us here that love comes from Him. So people who show the kind of love that he shows to us are operating in true love. And this love is reliable. And furthermore, if you desire a godly mate - look for someone who shows love the way God shows it to you.

Now let's look at a short story in the bible where love literally spoke. And I want to know what love speaks to you.

The story of Hosea and Gomer declares about love loudly.

Especially loving in a way that is obedient to God.

Hosea 3:1-3,5 reads and the Lord said to me 'go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins. So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and lethech of barley. And I said to her, you must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you...Afterward, the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.

What do you see immediately from this text? What can you gather about love? How does love behave?

And before you go off on a tangent thinking that God wants you to experience adultery in marriage, that is NOT the truth LOL. I'm lol-ing but so serious.

The themes within this chapter are many.

First off, God used this man and woman as a mirror of his love for us -- that though we are of sinful nature and will never be perfect, his love extends to us and redeems us.

What we gather here is:

• - love redeems

• - love declares (Hosea declared to Gomer that he would be with her)

• - love in obedience to God shifts circumstances and is powerful

• - love comes from God and we should operate in His likeness of love

• - love forgives

• - love encompasses God's goodness

• - love has order and structure

• - love has guidelines that protect you and the other people involved

• - love is a choice

• - love is steadfast

• - love sacrifices, it is an action

• - love is faithful

• - real love leads us back to God because He is love and our first point of example ((In love, God gave his only son \ (his love was followed by action))

• - love does not half step

It's stories like these that speak deeply because we saw the word being lived out in action. Receive truth and renewing in your mind that you do in fact deserve a love from people in your life that is intentional, genuine, and filled with effort and service.

So if you are ever questioning the validity or truth of someone's love as it relates to you, ask yourself what does God show you about love in the bible, from this story, from the love he shows you?

Do you know what God's love feels like? If not, ask Him to cause you to perceive it.

And are you showing up in a way that you can also be shown the love that you deserve?

As you receive life producing insight for your own love life and the way you show love to other people, I proclaim from the mouth of the Lord that His love extends to you.

And I decree that you experience real love in your relationships, that people love you well, and the places where you expected love and were shown everything but love -- I decree those places are receiving the Father's love right now, they are healing, mended, and made whole and well in Jesus name.

Father, I thank you that everyone who reads this blog will encounter your love even the more in their life, that your love will chase them down. And fill them up with love even the more today, in Jesus name it is so, amen!

God bless you, and until the next time -- let's do life practically and with purpose!

Love,

Kay 🩷