Love Lessons  Retreat Fall 2021  Q&A Pt 6 © 2022 WF Cobb Truthbase.net  DailyTruthbase.blog 

 Q. What if don't feel loved; what is Biblical love like?    A. Faith in Revealed Fact vs Feeling/Fantasy/Fabrications of satan =False expectations

 Where do we get our ideas re love? Satan's system, or from the Creator God who reveals Himself to be love? God is love -1Jn 4:8

 Remember feelings/emotions arise from value-filtered perceptions/lenses of reality, and are also expressed thru often faulty value filters

How do you want to be loved? Lev 19:18 no grudge-love others as yourself. Know & embrace God and His commands as revealed in Scripture

Jn 13:34 A new command I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. (=2^nd!!)

35  By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.14:21 who has My commands and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.

23 If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.

See TOYL Friendship and DTB bottom of each post (What does this tell me about: God, myself, and the rlshp 'twn the two?).

See John 15 sec IV. What the Gehenna? Retreat Q&A part 4.

Jn 15:1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you...branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches;  who abides in Me and I in him, bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. Cf Heb 6:8 useful...blessing from God;8 but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned

7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. 9 as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.

10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.

The following is from: Charles Stanley intouch.org/watch/sermons/love-lessons  (italics from BC)

1. Love is more than an emotion (often false and transitory). It’s a (faithful) commitment/(choice/decision) to (benefit) another person

2. Love is not free. It actually demands something of us. We can’t live for ourselves in isolation and at the same time love someone else.

3. Love looks beyond the flesh. Its focus is the heart and spirit (character) of a person, not the external appearance. The connection is both emotional and cerebral, not merely a physical attraction. (Where do we get our ideas/values about how life should be?) (arrange-congruent)

4. Lust has nothing to do with genuine love. Our world has substituted lust for love...Lust is focused on self—what I want or need from the other person. But love is concerned for the loved one—what I can do for him or her. (Nor is it Romantic “love”)

5. Love cannot be bought. It’s a gift that is given freely, and one that is received without cost (faith?). (cf God's love & cov't obligations)

6. Love desires to give with no strings attached. It doesn’t demand that the other person be a certain way/(manner) or do what is desired before love is given. Genuine love is freely bestowed w/o qualifications or requirements. (cx Phil 1:9 epiK & discernment bounds)

7. Love is generous and unselfish. True love is other-centered, not self-centered. It’s always looking for ways to give, not ways to get.

8. Love is more fulfilled in giving than in receiving. Those who genuinely love others find great satisfaction in generously giving to them. They are especially gratified when they can supply what someone else really needs or desires. (observant, yet cov't obligations)

9. Love is forgiving. Carrying the weight of anger (resp to hurt), resentment (dislike due to undermined worth), bitterness (desire to hurt-retaliate), or jealousy (low self-esteem-insecure cx humble honesty & faith Ps 84) chokes a person’s spirit, hinders ability to truly love others.

10. Love desires to express itself. Love is demonstrative and must be expressed. When God’s love is in us, it flows out in sacrificial giving.

11. Love is a happy emotion. The happiest people are not those who have everything money can buy, but those who know how to love.

12. Love enjoys seeing others happy/experience pleasure. That’s cz the focus is not on getting for self but in sacrificing for others.

13. Love is fulfilling...When we know how to give & receive love, it gives us a sense of completeness, competence, and worthiness.

14. Love hurts when others hurt. Genuine love is characterized by compassion and mercy (desire to help/alleviate pain/misery) expressed either thru direct interaction or more distantly thru prayer. (Desire and commitment to do what is another's best interest.)

15. Love does not keep accounts. There is no record of who did what for whom. Love is not a matter of paying and receiving, but of giving without expectation of return. (Cx covenental reciprocity as seen in God's love of Israel and us.)

16. Love may be very painful. This is especially true if the love isn’t mutual. It may require repeated forgiveness.

17. Love doesn’t require anything in return. There are no conditions or requirements placed on the other person before love is freely given.

18. Love is patient. It waits until the proper time, whereas lust wants immediate gratification. If ultimatums are given, it’s not genuine love

19. Christ’s death on the cross is the perfect example of love. Jesus came into the world He loved to give His life as a ransom for sin, yet few people loved Him in return. When we continue to love unresponsive, ungrateful people, we are following Christ’s example. As Savior and Lord, He pours His love into our hearts (via HS), enabling us to love others no matter how ugly they behave toward us.

20. Love is its own reward. Knowing that we are loved by God and being able to love Him in return is an amazing blessing. It sustains us when we feel forsaken and unloved by others. And if loved ones die or leave us, we have a Friend who will never desert us.