Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Romance Is A Long Sacrifice


Jennifer Lopez was interviewed recently and asked if she has figured out what real love is yet. She said her songs use to be about love and romance. Then after three divorces and several break-ups with boyfriends, she sang about heartache. Now, she is not quite sure what real love looks like.

Elspeth recently made this comment on a blog, “Most people are lying when they stand in front of the preacher and vow to stay for better or worse. What’s more, everyone including the preacher, knows they’re lying which makes the whole debacle even worse.”  {Elspeth has a great blog HERE.}

Real love is commitment, a vow until death do you part. Marriage is to resemble Christ and the Church. Christ is committed to those who believe in Him forever just as we are called to do with the spouse that we marry, through richer or poor, in sickness and in health, and for better or for worse. 

Until she understands what love is, Jennifer will never experience the joy of committed love. Our nation does not keeps its vows. It is a nation of vow breakers. However, we are the people of God and we should not be like the world. We should be keeping our vows come what may.

God tells us wives, "Let not the wife depart from her husband" and to the husbands, "Let not the husband put away his wife." {I Corinthians 10,11} Even if we are unfaithful to the Lord, He remains faithful to us. We should do the same with our spouse.

I have seen too many marriages that stayed together despite adultery and have enjoyed many happy years together. God can heal anything. When you divorce, you are saying that God is not powerful enough to put together what is broken. I tell you, He is powerful enough to put anything back together, including your marriage.

True love doesn't seek to be happy. True love seeks to be faithful. We can remain faithful because God tells us we can, "We can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens us."

I feel sorry for Jennifer Lopez and all those out there who badly want to figure out love. They are searching in all the wrong places and coming up holding the ashes of another burned up relationship. Until they realize that true love is commitment, not emotions, feelings, or happiness, they will NEVER find love.

As Ann Voskamp so beautifully says it, "Don’t let Hollywood define it {love}; 
let the pages of Truth define it: Romance is a long sacrifice."