By Francis Frangipane
Is
your love growing softer, brighter and more visible? Or is it becoming
more discriminating, more calculating, less vulnerable and less
available? This is a very important issue, for your Christianity is only
as real as your love. A measurable decrease in your ability to love is
evidence that a stronghold of cold love is developing within you.
Jesus
warned of our era. He said, "Many will fall away and will betray one
another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will
mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will
grow cold" (Matt. 24:10-12). So, let us honestly ask the Lord to examine
us: Is our love hot or cold? Another's thoughtlessness may have wounded
us deeply, but instead of forgiving the wound or going to them and
discussing it according to Matthew 18, we go to others with our
complaint. The wound then begins to germinate into a root of bitterness,
and many are being defiled (Heb. 12:15). What is growing in us is not
love but bitterness, which is unfulfilled revenge.
Again,
Jesus warned "that stumbling blocks [would] come" (Matt. 18:7). There
will be times when even good people have bad days; there will never be a
time when "stumbling blocks" cease to be found upon your path. Remember
also, people do not stumble over boulders but over stones -- little
things. When you have stumbled over something, you've stopped walking.
Have
you stumbled over someone's weakness or sin lately? Have you gotten
back up and continued loving as you did before, or has that fall caused
you to withdraw from walking in love? To preserve the quality of your
love, you must forgive those who have caused you to stumble. Depending
on the issue itself, it may be that you legitimately cannot trust them,
but you do not have a reason to stop loving.
Every time
you refuse to forgive or fail to overlook a weakness in another, your
heart not only hardens toward them, it hardens toward God. You may still
think you are open to God, but the Scriptures are clear: "The one who
does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has
not seen" (1 John 4:20). You may not like what someone has done, but you
do not have an option to stop loving them.
What do I
mean by love? First, I do not merely mean "tough love." I mean gentle,
affectionate, sensitive, open, persistent love. God will be tough when
He needs to be, and we will be firm when He tells us to be, but beneath
our firmness must be an underground river of love waiting to spring into
action. When I have love for someone, I have predetermined that I am
going to stand with them, regardless of what they are going through. I
am committed.
We each need people who love us, who are
committed to us in spite of our imperfections. The fullness of Christ
will not come without Christians standing with each other in love. We
are not talking about salvation but growing in salvation until we care
for each other, even as Christ has committed Himself to us.
The
goal of pulling down the stronghold of cold love is to see our hearts
restored to the heart of Christ. You will be challenged in this, but if
you persist, you will discover the height and depth and breadth of
Christ's love. You will become "a body filled and flooded with God
Himself" (Eph. 3:19 Amp).
Adapted from Francis Frangipane's book, The Three Battlegrounds available at www.arrowbookstore.com.
