There are various situations in our lives that can leave us brokenhearted. Perhaps you and your spouse pledged to love each other forever, but at some point, love and trust shattered, leaving you bereft, unsure of love ever finding you again. Perhaps parents weren’t as nurturing as they should be, leaving children to grow up with a lack of understanding the depth of true love. There may be parents who truly did love and nurture their children, holding them dear to their hearts, sacrificing for their children’s every need, but one day the child that is so loved turns away in betrayal. Friendships once thought to be everlasting fades away with the passing of years. Love so strong can end so cruel. How then can one ever trust in the love that God promises them?
Humans are fallible. Our emotions are topsy-turvy, with feelings of love one moment, and feelings of diminished love the next. We can’t always understand our own selves; how can we expect anyone else to understand us? If God so loves the world, then why is the world so full of hate? If God can do anything, then why does evil exist? Why doesn’t God just fill everyone with love and do away with betrayal?
First of all, we must remember that love is not merely a feeling, but it is something you do. God is holy. He cannot accept sin because sin is not holy, but we are born sinful. What, then, can be done? Enter Jesus. He is holy, encompassing all of love within that holiness. His love is without fault; it is pure and endless. To show His love for us, He did something amazing. He did not just speak empty words. No, He hung on a cross to pay the penalty for our sin; thereby, making us pure, too. This action was the epitome of His love.
How could Jesus bear all the sins of the world upon Himself? When you and I are falsely accused, we want to defend ourselves, to prove our innocence. To stand up for ourselves is human nature, but Jesus did not defend Himself — because of His God nature. Human nature makes excuses. God nature took the blame upon Himself. We are naturally selfish. God is naturally giving. He gave the ultimate gift — His only Son, Jesus. Jesus willingly stretched out His arms on the cross to pay for the sins of the world, but even in that selfless act, His love would not allow Him to force anyone to receive His gift of forgiveness of sins and eternal life with Him in Heaven where sin and death and sorrow are no more. To receive His gift is our choice alone.
Jesus chose to die because of His love for us. We must choose to live because of our love for Him. We must choose to truly repent of our sin (not just saying sorry) but to turn away. When we make that choice, the Holy Spirit fills us, empowering us to love as Jesus loves, to forgive the unlovely, to reach out to the poor, to show kindness to the filthy, in all of these actions, to point others to Jesus, that they may also make their own choices to receive Him or not.
Love fills us with sweet emotion, but human love can betray. The love of God also fills us with sweet emotion, but God’s love only grows stronger within us as we make another choice — to walk in His ways, to meditate upon His lovely promises, to share His endless love with others. God’s love never betrays or disappoints; it only draws us closer to Him as we surrender to His everlasting arms that holds us so dear.
The world will not always be evil and hateful. Jesus will come back to make all things new. Only those who have chosen to receive His gift of salvation will live in that world. In the world that is to come, betrayal does not exist, love is never broken, sin is finally no more.
I hope you choose God’s love, for there is nothing more certain in all this world.