Devotionals for the Heart: True Love

Deciding to Love
A devotional by Christa MacDonald

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, 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.” 
– 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIV)

The very first novel I wrote I stuck in a drawer, never again to see the light of day. It was a mess, and after trying to fix it I decided it just wasn’t meant to be.

Occasionally, though, one of the scenes will pop into my head like a little echo while I’m writing something else. Often they’re the gems hidden in the dross. That was the case today when I sat down to write this devotional featuring the verse above. In a scene from that ‘lost novel’ a man named Owen is sitting in the office of the church pastor who is attempting a ‘come to Jesus.’ The pastor reads these verses to Owen, who realizes that real love requires sacrifice. Romantic love takes us over in a rush, but the kind of love God calls us to is different. Love is a decision. It’s choosing faith over fear.

In the same scene, the pastor also reads a quote from The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis:

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

Owen is gutted by these words because he sees that that was what he had been doing to his own heart – walling it off, keeping all emotion at bay so he could function day to day – instead of facing his pain and receiving healing. A heart like that is incapable of love.

There has been a lot written about love, but nothing can match the example of love that Jesus Christ gave when He voluntarily laid down his life for us on the cross. On top of that, He actually bore our sins, which is something that we have no real ability to comprehend.

God’s Word (The Holy Bible) tells us that such a great sacrifice is the foundational truth for our love of other people, considering them more important than ourselves, praying for them, assisting them, and fulfilling God’s command in Scripture that calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves. True love is only truly understood through the revelation of God in the Bible, which calls us to love God first, thus fulfilling the requirements of what love actually is.

To love is to persevere. In marriage, in parenting, even in friendships love is tested. If we truly love, that love goes on. These verses give us the standard and boy is it high. Because love in its true sense comes only from God, it is only through a saving faith in Jesus Christ that it’s even possible to come close to attaining it.

~*~
Author Bio:

Christa MacDonald is a 2017 ACFW Carol Award finalist for contemporary Christian fiction.

A native New Englander, she was inspired by her travels through the north woods of Maine to write The Broken Trail, which would become the first in the Sweet River Redemption series published by Mountain Brook Ink.

Christa's writing focuses on the real-life challenges of the modern world, love’s sometimes crooked path, and the redemptive power of Grace.

When not working or writing Christa can be found ferrying her kids around, reading, or attempting something crafty.

She and her husband live with their three kids, two cats, and one dog along the coast of New England. Connect with Christa at www.christamacdonald.com.

Devotionals for the Heart: Tough Love

Tough Love
A devotional by Christa MacDonald

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” 
– Luke 6:32-36 (NIV)

One of my most favorite passages in The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis is this description of the Christian going to his local church: “When he goes inside, he sees the local grocer with rather an oily expression on his face bustling up to offer him one shiny little book containing a liturgy which neither of them understands, and one shabby little book containing corrupt texts of a number of religious lyrics, mostly bad, and in very small print. When he gets to his pew and looks round him he sees just that selection of his neighbors whom he has hitherto avoided.”

As Christians, we need to rub shoulders with fellow believers in what is a safe place and let them challenge us to love like Jesus. It’s one of the strongest arguments for regular church attendance. The best churches have pews filled with the high and the low, the meek and the mighty, the community leader you want to befriend and the weird guy who hangs out at the gas station and that you try not to make eye contact with. Within our church family we’re supported, encouraged, and coached to love one another. What a better place to build your Christian muscles?

As the verse above makes clear, God loves the unlovable and He expects us to do the same. Jesus died for criminals, haters, adulterers, sinners. He died for us; we are the unlovable. Whatever we think of ourselves, we are no better than the worst of humanity. We’re all sinners. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). It’s tempting to think that you were always a ‘good person,’ living a ‘good’ life, that you’ve been able to avoid the curse of Original Sin. Nope! You’re not good now and you never were. However, there is hope when you become a follower of Jesus Christ.

If you’re a Christian (follower of Jesus Christ), then you’ve been redeemed and your sinful heart has been turned to Jesus and your wayward feet are on the path to glory. But don’t forget that you didn’t deserve it! You didn’t lift yourself out of the well of sin you were in. Maybe your sin didn’t feel that bad to you compared to others, but God doesn’t pick up a yardstick to measure out your sin and give you a break if it’s not ‘that bad.’ 

Because He is an infinitely Holy God, our smallest rebellion against Him deserves the most severe punishment. But it pleased Him to sacrifice His Son (Jesus Christ) so that He could display what True Love really is.

We need to love radically, like God does. Generic, worldly love isn’t enough.

And God doesn’t stop there. He wants us to love those who hate us, as well as those that we have ‘hitherto avoided.’ Loving our enemies isn’t just the absence of nastiness, it’s active love, and a big part of that is sharing the Gospel.

Don’t let your heart be turned from fellow sinners who need the same mercy and grace that has been shown to you. Remember your own story; the unbearable weight of your sins that you felt when you were confronted with them, and the panic of not knowing how to get rid of that weight. And remember what it was like when you were given the option of receiving that free gift that would take that weight away forever – repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

Don’t leave someone in their sin; show them the path to God’s redeeming grace.

~*~
Author Bio:

Christa MacDonald is a 2017 ACFW Carol Award finalist for contemporary Christian fiction.

A native New Englander, she was inspired by her travels through the north woods of Maine to write The Broken Trail, which would become the first in the Sweet River Redemption series published by Mountain Brook Ink.

Christa's writing focuses on the real-life challenges of the modern world, love’s sometimes crooked path, and the redemptive power of Grace.

When not working or writing Christa can be found ferrying her kids around, reading, or attempting something crafty.

She and her husband live with their three kids, two cats, and one dog along the coast of New England. Connect with Christa at www.christamacdonald.com.

Devotionals for the Heart: On Love

God is Love
A devotional by Christa MacDonald

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, 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.” 

– 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIV)

It’s February and by now you’re probably a little sick of love. Valentine’s Day with its pink and red excess means an onslaught of bad takes on love. When you read the above verses, you get the BIble’s take on love, and it’s the best one.

Another solid take is “The Four Loves” by C.S. Lewis. One of my favorite quotes from it is, “To love at all is to be vulnerable.” The entire passage is wonderful, but that first line has some deep wisdom in it. Love is by nature, sacrificial. It’s also sacred.

Our culture talks a lot about love, but it tends to be the sort that’s a pale imitation of the real thing. It’s sugar-coated and dishonest. Think about that line from the movie Love Story: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”

Right. That’s not how it works. We’re humans and therefore sinners. We’re going to make mistakes. We’re going to hurt each other. The very act of loving someone guarantees you will experience pain at some point.

When someone hurts you, really breaks your heart, the temptation is to hold onto that pain. We tend to revisit old wounds, proudly bearing our scars as if they are badges of courage. They make us tougher and they make our hearts harder. Resentment and bitterness slip in while we’re not paying attention and, before we know it, love is impossible.

God perfectly loves us. We, in turn, start sinning against Him from nearly the moment we are born. If He can offer us forgiveness in the depth of our sin, how can we withhold it from someone we love?

Forgiveness drives out bitterness. They can’t occupy the same space. But, what if the person who hurt you is unrepentant? Forgive them. What if they do it again? Forgive them. That doesn’t mean that you stand still while they pummel you. It’s right and good to create safe distance between yourself and someone hurting you, emotionally or otherwise. But forgiveness sets you free.

Someone I once loved hurt me profoundly. It took years to let go of those scars. Part of the process was acknowledging the pain, believing that what had happened to me was wrong and that while what I was feeling was only natural, it needed to end. I thought of how God loves us, the mountains of sins He forgives. This person never asked for my forgiveness, never acknowledged their harm, but it didn’t matter. As God forgave me…It took time, but I was finally able to forgive the past and let it go. The scars are probably still there, but they’re a reminder, a caution, not a pool of resentment and bitterness that I draw on.

The world will tell you to hold onto your pain, to let love be a shallow, temporary thing. Remember what The Holy Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 and what love really is...After all, God is love.

~*~
Author Bio:

Christa MacDonald is a 2017 ACFW Carol Award finalist for contemporary Christian fiction.

A native New Englander, she was inspired by her travels through the north woods of Maine to write The Broken Trail, which would become the first in the Sweet River Redemption series published by Mountain Brook Ink.

Christa's writing focuses on the real-life challenges of the modern world; love’s sometimes crooked path, and the redemptive power of Grace.

When not working or writing Christa can be found ferrying her kids around, reading, or attempting something crafty.

She and her husband live with their three kids, two cats, and one dog along the coast of New England. Connect with Christa at www.christamacdonald.com.