Four Pillars to Strengthen Your Faith

God shows us His love in so many ways and through so many different words. But it all boils down to this: God is telling us that His love is forever! He will never leave nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5). God loves us so much that He gave His one and only Son that we may be saved and have everlasting life (John 3:16).

The kind of love these words portray is not the kind of love we are used to seeing in our society today. It is not an emotional love. Our society has turned love into something touchy-feely. If we do not “feel it,” then there must not be any love there. Consequently, we have a high divorce rates, even in the church family. Agape love stays, follows, and loves no matter what is happening or what the circumstances may be in a relationship.

Jesus taught this kind of love all throughout the New Testament. In Luke 6:27-31, Jesus teaches us to love our enemies. In verse 27, He says, “But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.”

Wow! This seems impossible! How can we love and pray for men like those who took down the Twin Towers? Or closer to home, how can we pray for and bless those who speak unkindly to us in church or cut us off in traffic? Ouch, that one was for me! Or how do you respond lovingly to your wife who doesn’t realize that you have had a hard day at work—thus, you think she does not care—and begins to unload on you all of her problems from the day? How can we possibly have that kind of love inside of us? By allowing God to put it there.

Romans 5:5 says, “The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

God has given us, or put inside of us, the kind of Agape love that Jesus has commanded us to live by. It is up to us to push aside our flesh and live by it. My wife, Stephanie, knows this kind of love and has helped me to see and use it. Let me use an example from above.

I have come home from a particularly long day at work and she began to update me about all her problems of the day. In a not so nice way, I proceed to tell her that if she would just do this or that, then she would not have those problems. Hurt and anger appeared in her eyes, and I could tell that an argument was about to break out—one I am, quite honestly, not ready for. Remember, I had a long, hard day at work. At this point, as you can see, it was all about me.

But then that love that God had poured out into her heart took over. Her eyes softened and she looked at me and said, “Mark, I love you.” Immediately, that love overflowed onto me, and I found myself filled with a love that covered all offenses and sin (1 Pet. 4:8). It did not matter what I had said or done. Stephanie made a choice to love me anyway, just like God does.

That is the kind of love that opens the door to faith. It is the kind of love that causes Paul to say that faith works by love. It is the kind of love that is in each Christian, if we choose to live by it. It is the kind of love that the devil cannot understand and has no defense against. Read it in God’s Word. Meditate on it, and let it pour into your heart. Seek it and God will reward you with it (Heb. 11:6).