Everyone wants to be loved. It is the essence of our nature. We will go to great lengths to make sure we are loved. Children are great. They like attention because it makes them feel loved. What happens when we grow up and start looking for love in relationships? How can we find the right person? How can we have a relationship that will last? These were a lot of the things I desired as a teenager. There have been a  lot of songs written about love and relationships. Love, that elusive thing, how do we find it? Looking For Love!

To find love, we must understand what love truly is. I went through some intimate relationships as well as two marriages before I really started to understand love. I discovered that love isn’t as much about feelings as it is about decisions. We can choose to love or we can choose to withhold our love.

The problem I had in my early years was that I was trying to find the love I so desperately craved in another human being. I thought that if I could just find the right girl, it would be great, just like in the fairy tales. But that is all they are, fairy tales. We live in a world of lies and sometimes it is hard to discover the truth. That is what I did though. I went on a search for the truth and as for me, I know that I have found it.

Real love is unselfish. It doesn’t even keep a record of the wrongs done to it, but rather it just keeps giving. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7,  “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” Now, if love is really based on feelings then this is not going to work. Show me someone who lives by feelings that is so full of love. It doesn’t happen. Love is based on choices. We can choose to love someone who is unlovable. This love may cause them to change or it may not.

I found the Lord Jesus Christ when I was at the end of myself. I had tried everything I knew to find this love. I thought that if I did more, people would love me. I thought that if I could marry someone who was compatible with me, that it would last. I wanted something real. I didn’t want this fakey stuff I see all the time. I thought that maybe if I was successful it would all work out, but in the end I found myself all alone and without hope. Everything I had worked to build was now broken and in shambles before me. What was I going to do to turn it around?

It was then that Jesus became real to me. For the first time I really felt His love in a way I hadn’t before. I had given Him my heart when I was a teenager, but I had kept certain areas of my heart from Him. I had also grown up believing some lies. I thought that I needed to be good and perform or that He would be disappointed and leave me. These were all lies though. It was when I had lost everything that He was able to really show me the truth. I guess I wasn’t open before to see it.

There is a scripture the Lord showed me years ago and at the time I just didn’t get it. Matthew 7:21-23,  ‘Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

This scripture shook me to my core. How would we make it then? It was later that I understood that God’s gifts and callings are without repentance, Romans 11:29. That is He doesn’t take them back. His word is true, therefore if we pray for someone, believing, they will get well. This doesn’t mean that we have a relationship with Him and that we are doing His will. How can we do His will if we don’t know Him or have this relationship? How can we know Him if we don’t spend time with Him? How can He be our friend if we can’t communicate with each other? He speaks to us. The question is, “Are we listening?” Are we walking with Him or is He like just some other religion that is based upon rules and regulations and is empty? This is the difference between religion and reality.

In my opinion, religion is a belief system that may or may not be true. There are certain things you have to do to attain to certain things. The problem is the fact that how do you really know if you get there. Does something change inside of you? How do you know?

Reality is walking in the truth. It is more than belief. It is experiencing the life, the love, and the friendship of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is real. He is not something we pray to, but rather someone we communicate with. He cares about all of our needs. So in reference to looking for love, I’ve found Him. I’ve made a choice to follow Him and not someone else’s beliefs. I have chosen to live, I have chosen to love,  and I have chosen to walk with Him beyond my days on this earth. Once His love filled the emptiness inside of my heart, I knew He was real. Everything else had just made the emptiness larger. I found this truth and no one can take it from me.

So now I will prophesy in His name when He has something to say. I will heal the sick when it is time. I will drive out demons in His timing and I will do what He says as far as miracles are concerned. Will I do it all perfectly? No, but I will do my best. But most of all, I want to do His will. I want to share this love I’ve found. I want others to know, there is a better way. There is truth. There is a reality in all of this chaos. There is peace, grace, mercy and righteous judgment.

I hope you are encouraged. I will be writing more on this subject, but in the meantime, feel free to check out my other posts. Search for the Lord. Ask Him into your heart. Ask Him to make you a brand new person. Begin the journey and find out who He really is. It is going to take some effort, but it is more than worth it. Email me using the contact form if you want or comment to this post to show it publicly. Our journey is not about some set of rules, but rather, it is all about Life.

Joseph James