Love is No Substitute for God, but God is Love

I use sweetener in all my drinks.  That being said, did you know there are lots of different types of artificial sweeteners? Some are said to affect your memory. Others affect my taste buds, that’s for sure! Some are more natural than artificial.  Sweetener came in a little bottle during the 60’s and 70’s and one miniscule drop from that bottle changed the entire taste of the drink. 

Love is a lot like sweeteners. We look for what makes life taste better. We don’t tend to be drawn toward bitter or acrid tastes. Generally we are all looking for love, that perfect, accepting, sweet kind of love. It’s been sung about, it’s been chanted about, it’s been poetically written about and people may even spend their fortunes looking for just the right love.

Love is no substitute for God, but God is love. When we find this Perfect Love, everything changes. That one touch from the Lord changes everything! We’re sweeter! Life is sweeter! Love for others is sweeter! Problems are easier to swallow and sorrow is easier to take. For we know and have experienced true love!

Maybe you’ve been looking into substitutes for the real thing. You may have thought that the love of a man or a woman would be your ultimate gain. Maybe you buried yourself in the love of sports, hobbies or your job. You were thinking that if you gave it your all, truly loved these things, you’d feel fulfilled. Yet here you are, with all the stuff around you and yet nothing seems to make you feel better about yourself. You still feel unloved, hopeless, helpless, discouraged, depressed and dismayed. Life can be great and should be, but finding things to substitute for God’s real love will always leave us lacking.

Oh beloved, God knows your heart this morning! He knows you’ve wanted love to be sweet and good! He knows you’ve looked for your heart’s desire! He knows you’ve been wondering if there’s any way you can find true love! He sees you and He knows that what you wanted to be sweet turned out so bitter. But He knows too that just one drop of His perfect love will change everything in your life! His love covers a multitude of sins, makes all things new, redeems your past, refreshes your present and makes the future bright instead of fearful! He speaks to your heart this morning and beckons you to His banqueting table of love. His love is free, perfect and unending. It is a river of living water that will never run dry! His love will change your troubles into blessings, your heartbreaks into victories and your entire life will be so sweet and blessed, no matter what.

God loves you and He’s for you and that’s worth drinking in daily!

 

1 Thessalonians 1:4 We know, dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be His own people.

John 7:38 “Anyone who believes in Me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’”

Isaiah 63:9 In all their suffering He also suffered, and He personally rescued them. In His love and mercy He redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them through all the years.

Zephaniah 3:17 For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With His love, He will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.

Ephesians 3:18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is.

Jeremiah 31:3 The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with loving-kindness”.