Everybody needs love. We want love. We crave it. We seek it, and will find it, or at least something to replace it. We were designed by God to love and be loved. That's not a fault or a weakness. It's a strength. It causes us to seek love, true love. Ultimately, if we seek true love, we will find God, because God is love (I John 4:8).
The problems come when we start looking for love in all the wrong places (cue the country music). Sadly, that song hits the nail on the head. If you know the song, or Google it, you'll see the truth. A lost soul wandering around, looking for love in places they'll never find it. Hurt, lost, alone and lonely.
We will find love, or at least something to replace love with. That's because we will find a god, whether it be the One True God, or an idol. That's what we're programmed for--to love and be loved--and we will do anything to accomplish that.
Therein lies the danger.
We are so hardwired for love that we will, no matter the cost, do something, anything, to feel loved. From abusive relationships to the "isms" and "holics" such as alcoholism and workaholic. Anything that gives us a warm feeling, a sense of belonging, a sense of worth that can, at least for a time, meet our desire for love.
None of those, however, are love. As mentioned above, God is love. Anything that does not come from God, then, cannot truly be love. It might feel good. It might feel like love, look like what the world calls love, and even fill that void inside you for a time. It is not, however, love.
Replacing what you really need with something else, even if it seems close enough, isn't going to end well. Put diesel in a gas engine and it won't run. Put gas in a diesel engine and it blows the engine. Try to replace true love from God with something from the world and your life isn't going to go well. Try to replace God with an idol and your world will come crashing down around you.
True love only comes from God.
Read I John Chapter 4. From God is love (v. 8) to This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us (v. 10), and we love because He first loved us (v. 19), it's a chapter that does much to explain this whole concept of love. The most important truth to learn is that God is love, and love comes from God.
That love we all crave, need, and seek is God. Plain and simple. If you seek, you will find, but you have to look in the right place. Love isn't found in the things of this world. Love is found in God, because God is love. I can't say that enough.
If you haven't found love, you haven't found God for who He truly is. If you want to be loved (and we all do), and love in return, raise your eyes upward.
That's where the source of all love is found.
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