Falling Back in Love

When a relationship has grown cold and the marriage is in trouble, often only one of the marriage partners wants to work at falling back in love. So, what is that person to do? Loving alone is hardly the ambition of most people! It’s sad to hear a man say, “She’d probably get mad if I brought home roses, or say, ‘You shouldn’t spend the money.’” Or to hear a wife say, “I’ve tried acting loving before and it hasn’t done any good. And, frankly, I can’t stand the rejection and humiliation anymore.”
These stories bring us to the conclusion that there’s no point in loving alone. But is that right? Did you know that that’s exactly what God did? The Bible says, “We love because he first loved us.” The message of the gospel is that God loved us when we didn’t love him back. God was kind to us when we were sinning against him. God pursued us when we ran the other direction. God was committed to us even when we wanted nothing to do with him.
You see, God decided to love us. He made a commitment and then he acted in accord with his commitment – totally independent of whether we would ever love him back or not. He loved us into loving him. And that’s the greatest truth of falling in love again. Even if the other person doesn’t love us back, we love as we have learned from God. That’s the way to fall in love again and that’s the way to love another person into love with you.

Related Scripture: I John 4:19

© 2007 Leith Anderson