THE WILL TO LOVE - Vital Christianity

28Prolongs lifePrevents or cures many mental or bodily diseasesImproves beautyBuilds self-confidenceLessens crimeIf applied by everyone, it would reform the world.The importance of love!THE DIFFICULTY OF LOVEBecause we are selfish by nature—rebellious toward God—our ability to love as weshould simply is not there. This is why will power is not the answer. We cannot learn to love justas a matter of resolve. We cannot just decide to start loving. As fallen creatures, we are goodadvertisers but poor producers. In our world we are bombarded by slogans, placards, or songs totry to resolve the problem of love. We are all for it, but we cannot achieve it.While we may have lofty ideals, we find that our achievements are not. As we look at ourworld, it is obvious that love does not reign. Even as we look at our finest institutions, we aredisappointed. And the Church, the people called out by God, also fails miserably in this mostimportant enterprise.We find it difficult, if not impossible, to express our love steadily and maturely. It isinconsistent at best.One of the reasons we find it so hard to love is that we know ourselves so well. Becausewe know dark secrets about ourselves, we find it difficult to believe anyone could love us.Therefore we develop defenses to keep people at a distance so they won’t find out what we reallyare.Another difficulty in love is that we set standards that we want people to come up toso that we can love them. We don’t really love them; we love their good qualities.THE CROSS IS THE ANSWERThe cross of Christ provides the answer to our dilemma. The cross shows us the way tolove as God intends: “By receiving God’s love.” John, who started out as a son of thunder butbecame the apostle of love, put it:“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Sonto be the propitiation for our sins” (1 Jn 4:10).