The Right Stuff!

Our hearts need to love. Our actions need to be compelled by love. Our words need to be offered in love. But is love, love? I mean, is what all people consider love really love? There is a song that refers to “looking for love in all the wrong places” and there are many in this world doing just that. There are others who think they have “found love” or are “in love” who perhaps don’t really understand what “true love” is.

Our hearts also need a sustaining power to help us “keep on keeping on.” Some feel they have the strength to stand against anything; to remain faithful and unwavering through whatever might befall them. But do they truly have what it takes? Are they depending on their own strength or their own affections?

Paul, in his second letter to the church at Thessalonica wrote…
“May the Lord direct your hearts to the LOVE OF GOD and to the STEADFASTNESS OF CHRIST.” ( 2 Thessalonians 3:5 ESV)

There’s what we truly need! There’s the “RIGHT STUFF” to sustain us. It is GOD’S LOVE that needs to become our love -- for it is a selfless, other-centered love. It is love that loves in spite of rather than because of. We also need the STEADFASTNESS OF CHRIST in order to have the sustaining power for hanging in there through life’s trials and remaining faithful to God’s way. May we be open to the Lord directing our hearts to possess His kind of love and Christ’s spirit of steadfastness.

Have a great day SUSTAINED BY THE RIGHT STUFF!
Carl
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[This focus was originally sent 08/30/1998 (Edited some with passage changed to ESV)]

See other teEn-MAIL on Love