Where Do You Get Love?

We all have need for love. The Beatles said it well: "All you need is love..." Where do we get our love needs met? That is the deepest question we can ask ourselves. Often we look to another human being to fufill our love needs. The problem is that other human beings often run empty on love too. This is where many serious issues arise in relationships. We begin to run empty on love so we look to someone else to fill up the love that is missing from our lives. They, in turn discover a love void in their own heart... A vicious cycle ensues. We were not designed to have our deepest love needs fulfilled by another. We were designed by our creator with an emptiness that can only be filled with His love. Look at the first verses of Genesis. There was a void and God filled it with His light. It is His nature to fill the void.

What is your "first love?" I do not mean that high school crush that you thought would be the "one." I mean, what is the source of your love? Jesus told the church of Ephesus in Rev. 2 that they had left their "first love." In other words, they left the source of their love. What is the true source of our love? Where does real love come from? John, in his first letter says that "God is love." Think about it, God doesn't just love us, He is the very initiation of love. He IS love.

When we get our first love, our initial love fulfilled in God, we have our deepest need for love met. Then we are capable of giving love to others, but we are not giving them our own fleshly, idealistic, love. The love we then give has its source in Love itself: God. Jesus said it best: "It is more blessed to give than to receive." How can we give what we do not have? How long can we live our lives expecting to receive the love of another to meet our needs? The best relationships are the one's where both partners are giving.

To expect to have our deepest love need met in someone other than God, is not only frustrating and painful, it is sinful idolatry.