With Valentines coming up, the hot topic right now is romantic love. Everyone is talking about love, either celebrating it or expressing remorse over the fact that there is an absence of it. Whatever a person's take is on love, everyone has their eyes fixed on it this weekend.
And on the idea of love, believers who are in relationships today have probably asked themselves this question: "How can I love my partner or my spouse more?" And if you haven't asked yourself that question, it's time you did because we should all grow in the area of loving others.
God's second greatest commandment was to grow in the expression of love towards others, and that 100 percent includes your spouse.
So going back to the question, how can we truly grow in love for each other? My take on it will shock you- absolutely nothing.
One of the most famous scriptures when it comes to love is found in 1 Corinthians 13, where the apostle Paul gives us a glimpse of what love should be. And though this scripture is not limited only to romantic relationships, it gives us a clear picture of how we are to love our spouses. Love should be patient, kind, humble, selfless, secure, pure, true and so on. The list can go on and when one takes a look at the requirements, it may seem daunting.
But that is because we believe that 1 Corinthians 13 is primarily describing the love that we must have when the truth is that it's not. This scripture doesn't speak primarily of the love that we hold in our hearts, but the love that God has for each and everyone of us and the love that He chooses to display to us. So why is that important to know?
You see, when we believe that the ability to love our spouses comes from our own will power to serve and love, we become limited. Not only that, but the time will also come that we will burn out if we depend on our own ability to love.
But when it becomes about experiencing the unending, patient, kind, humble, selfless, secure, pure and true love of God in a way that will overflow with guarantee, we will become channels of His love for our spouse, our children and everyone around us. It's never about how much more we can love our spouse because that will run out.
If you want to grow more in love with your spouse, experience the unconditional and unfailing love of God on a regular basis through spending time with Him and being filled with His love and then be a channel of that love to others.
