How Is Your Love Tank?

“Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance” (1 Corinthians 13:7 NLT, second edition).

The kind of love that really makes a difference in this world requires a big effort on your part, but you’ll enjoy huge rewards.

Sometimes you just don’t feel like you have any more love to give. Maybe you’re in a people-intensive job, such as teacher, salesman, or waitress, and you come home and think, “I just can’t face another need, another problem, or another heartache.” So you just shut down.

Or you need to show love to a particular person who is demanding, selfish, and never returns your love. And you just think to yourself, “I’m done. No more.”

While that’s perfectly natural and perfectly human, it’s not the standard of love God calls us to in the Bible. The Bible says, “Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance” (1 Corinthians 13:7 NLT, second edition). Love never gives up.

How can you have that kind of patient love for another person? You get refueled.

To give the kind of patient love that God wants you to give, you have to refuel your love tank. Look around at society, and you’ll see it’s littered with debris from relationships that have crashed and burned because people didn’t refuel their love.

How do you refuel your love tank? You start by letting God love you. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19 NIV).

When you’re worn out, tired, and can’t imagine showing love to anyone else, remember that God loved you so much that he sent his Son to die for you.  Read John 3:16-17

Now that’s real fuel. That’s what keeps you going when you want to quit.

Thank You Jesus for the Love you have given us all.  May we show Your love to all we meet by our actions as well as our words.  Amen