“Now choose life…that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.”Deuteronomy 30:19-20, NIV
God’s love for you is great, but he doesn’t force you to love him back.
It’s a choice: You either love God or thumb your nose at him and go a completely different way. When you love God, you find real life. When you don’t, it will inevitably lead to destruction. God wants everyone to love him back, and he’s constantly working to draw us closer to him, but he gives us the choice.
Many people buy into the myth that love is controllable. They’ll say, “I fell in love,” as if it were some kind of unavoidable ditch. This kind of thinking makes for popular movies, but it’s terrible for life.
Love isn’t something that happens to you. Love is an active commitment that is repeated over and over. When you decide to love God, it’s a commitment to love him for the rest of your life.
Loving other people is also an active commitment and this has significant implications for your relationships. You choose who you love. It’s not automatic as if you were a robot. Healthy relationships are built on a lasting commitment of love, even when times are tough.
Love doesn’t make everything perfect, far from it! Often, the more you love someone, the more your love is tested, because you know everything that person, the good and the bad.
You also can’t force someone to love you, which is a painful truth. No matter how much you love someone, day in and day out you can’t make them love you back. Love is a choice for you, and it’s choice for them too.
The choice is yours. Will you choose to love God? How will you love others?