God’s Love is Tough.

The sun rises over the clouds in front of the summit of Haleakala volcano in Haleakala National Park on Hawaii’s island of Maui, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Park officials say the sunrise on Haleakala attracts over a thousand people a day, resulting in an overload of visitors and creating a safety hazard. As a result, anyone wanting to see the sunrise on the summit will now be required to make reservations in advance and pay a small fee. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones) ORG XMIT: NY301

As we consider the goodness of God and the greatness of His creation, we often feel a great affection for Him. I love the feeling I get when He manifests His love. He loves us and is kindly disposed to us. But there is much more to God’s love than those “warm fuzzies” we sometimes feel.

One feature of God’s love is toughness. Love is tough? Oh Yeah! Consider this part of Paul’s description of Love.

“Love is very patient and kind, never jealous or envious, never boastful or proud. Never haughty or selfish or rude. Love does not demand its own way. It is not irritable or touchy. It does not hold grudges and will hardly even notice when others do it wrong.” 1 Cor 13:4-5 NIV

Think of that in the context of our lives. The love we are loved with and which we are to love must have power, character, and toughness to be able to act in these ways. Consider Jesus, our example.   In John 1 we see that through Him the world was made and when He came as man He was unrecognized and unaccepted. Yet He went about doing good, until that ultimate expression of love on the cross. How strong a love must be for that!

If God’s love is faithful as we learned last week and if His love is tough, we are in a very good place as believers.  Grace and Peace.