Because God created us, He knows what stirs our hearts. He knows the things that "take our breath away" and He created every one of them. God created us with the desire to worship and He created us with the desire to love. We are drawn to that which is beautiful and because of this, there is a connection between beauty and love.
Love can best be seen as an action. (Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.1 John 3:16) It is devotion and not based on emotion or how we feel. Of course, emotions are involved, but they should not be the criteria for how we love. True devotion to another is what will always lead to true love.
To understand devotion we must know its meaning. The dictionary defines devotion as strong attachment (to) or affection (for a cause, person, etc.) marked by dedicated loyalty, profound dedication, earnest attachment to a cause or person. Devotion requires loyalty. It says that we will stand by someone through thick and thin because we are “attached” to them. From understanding devotion, the only other way to identify true love is by what we find in God’s word.
2 Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. 3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. Ephesians 4:2-3
Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Romans 2:10
When we match our relationships to what the Bible defines love as, then we can truly confess that “we love” and understand love.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Because we are human, the way we love not only comes from our ability to see the worth of another but also from the worth we feel in ourselves as well. Our ability to love is determined by our self-worth. Hmm, this could be a problem. If there is no source of worth outside of ourselves or greater than ourselves than how in the world can we love one another? The question then becomes how can we love if we ourselves have no self-worth?
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