Real Love Costs

"For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous" (1 John 5:3)

Real love costs. That's right - it's not free like it was referred to in the sixties. Love is a verb. It is a great and grand commitment.

Sometimes a young man will casually say to a young lady, "I love you." Oh, he loves her all right. He loves her like a man who loves oranges. He takes an orange, cuts a plug out of it, squeezes the sweet juice from it, throws it on the ground like a piece of garbage, wipes his mouth and says, "Man, I love oranges!"

Let me tell you, real love is not that way. Real love lives to give. Lust lives to get.

Are you dating someone and wondering if it is true love? True love says that God is holy and therefore you are to be holy. Read 1 Peter 1:15-16. If you are struggling in any area in your relationship, it's time to have a heart-to-heart talk with God and get things right with Him and then share what God has shown you.

~Adrian Rogers~
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"Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what His Lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you" (John 15:15)

What is the blessing of obedience? Intimacy with God. You will come to know things that you could never know any other way when you become intimate with God. And yet people are still asking. "How do I understand the Bible? Friend, you will have a knowledge that surpasses anything you could gain from a school of learning when you serve the Lord in obedience. Jesus said we become His friends when we become His servants. And a friend knows all things.

Amos 3:7 says, "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets." Have you stopped growing? Perhaps it is because you have stopped obeying. The way to have insight into the heart of God is through obedience.

Talk to God about your relationship with Him. Do you feel like His servant? Do you feel like His child? Do you feel like His friend? All of these things are facts of a relationship with God. Ask God to teach you how to strengthen your relationship with Him today.

~Adrian Rogers~