“Has the romance departed from your marriage, head off to the beautiful beaches of the Caribbean, enjoy the vistas off the south of France, do anything, go anywhere, just to get that feeling back.”
Welcome to the life of those whose faith in Christ is based on their emotions, their feelings, to those whose walk with Jesus depends on the circumstances that surround their lives at this moment. “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Psalm 16:11) Do you know one of the reasons that those pleasures are mentioned, why they will never end? Because if you want to be Christlike here in this life, you must be a person of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, (Isaiah 53:3) just like He was, you must hate evil with all of your soul, and not just the child rapists, the sinful politicians, the murderers and thieves, not just those who do not have any belief whatsoever in our Savior, but the actions of all of the creation of God that have fallen under the curse. (Gen. 3:17)
The love that our Lord has for us will never grow or diminish, the wrath that abides upon the wicked, (John 3:36) will never cease or lessen, but not so with us, our love comes and goes. It is based on the actions of others towards us, their words and deeds, and whether we like it or not, we have much difficulty in remaining in that love once it comes to us. It needs to grow, to strengthen, to become deeper, ingrained into us without question, and that is almost impossible, for we base it almost entirely upon our emotions. Logic does not know love, truth is not aware of this emotion, they are concepts, not the fleeting foundations that most attempt to hold on to.
The foundation of love was set long before the creation of reality, of all that is now, for love is not an attribute of the Lord God, it is God, without Him, love does not exist, but that is as far as many will search. They know that the epitome, the pinnacle of the expression of that love towards mankind was shown at the cross, but that is as far as they will accept that love. “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.” (Phil. 3:10) There are few that desire to go that far, for they have much difficulty seeing love in suffering, no matter in what form it arrives.
The Roman Catholic cult, certain monistic organizations, even those in many pseudo-religious churches believe that without suffering, it is impossible to draw nearer to Christ, but that suffering is always either self-inflicted or mandated, and is nothing more than a manmade work meant to show love, useless and almost perverse. For others, when trials, tribulations, suffering or pain arrives at their doorstep, whether it be physical or mental, upon themselves or those that they hold dear, it is spurned and rejected, for they see romance only on those sunny shores, when the sky is blue, and there is peace.
Romance my friends is a continuing search for that which is pleasurable in our sight, that which must always be sought out, but can never truly be owned. Love is an action that never ceases. Romance is a drawing towards, love is the fulfillment of romance, and finds its home only in love. “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” (John 12:32) Romance does not cease, it does not die when love is achieved, it continues to grow continuously, it finds avenues in love that it did not know existed, and that love continues to grow, no matter the circumstances.
The Lord God romanced each of His called-out ones, He blessed us with the ability to love Him back, and we will never know the extent, or an end to that romance, we will never truly understand the extent to which we are loved.
