Unchanging Love

Read: James 1:12-20

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights." —James 1:17

At a wedding I attended, the bride’s grandfather quoted from memory a moving selection of Scripture about the relationship of husband and wife. Then a friend of the couple read “Sonnet 116” by William Shakespeare. The minister conducting the ceremony used a phrase from that sonnet to illustrate the kind of love that should characterize a Christian marriage: “Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.” The poet is saying that true love does not change with circumstances.

The minister noted the many changes this couple would experience during their life together, including health and the inevitable effects of age. Then he challenged them to cultivate the true biblical love that neither falters nor fails in spite of the alterations that would surely come their way.

As I witnessed the joy and excitement of this young couple, a verse came to mind from James: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (1:17). God never changes, and neither does His love for us. We are recipients of a perfect love from our heavenly Father, who has loved us “with an everlasting love” (Jer. 31:3).

We are called to accept His unfailing love, to allow it to shape our lives, and to extend it to others.

Unfailing is God’s matchless love,

So kind, so pure, so true;

And those who draw upon that love

Show love in all they do. —D. De Haan

God’s love still stands when all else has fallen.

by David C. McCasland

Verse of the day

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3
New International Version 

THOUGHTS ABOUT TODAY'S VERSE...
Love - in the week before Valentine's Day we want to remember the real meaning of love. Without the motivation and expression of love, all "Christian" activities are more "activity" than Christian. Love is the expression of Christ's character and presence in our lives through deeds done for others. 

MY PRAYER...
Loving Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your demonstration of love in Jesus. Help me to love as he did - selflessly, sacrificially, and consistently, so others may know of your love through my actions. In Jesus Name I pray. Amen.