Developing Genuine Love

            There are three basic steps that a person should follow to properly develop genuine love for others around him.  These three steps are especially important to develop genuine love between a husband and wife.  When they are properly followed, it will open the door to the spirit of genuine love that God intended for everyone to experience.

The first step in developing genuine love is to give God all of your affections.  Many times throughout the course of life, an individual will give a part of their heart to other people through relationships or situations that God did not intend for them to have.  As a result, a smaller portion of the heart is left to give to the one God calls an individual to marry.  To avoid the undesirable consequence of not having any heart left to give, it is very wise to turn over all affections to God and allow Him to hold them for us.  When we do this, we can be assured that our focus is on God and that He will take care of our affections.

The second step to develop genuine love is to dedicate yourself as a channel of God’s love.  When this is done, God will be given the freedom to love others through you.  When your affections have been given to God, it puts all your focus on God.  If your focus is set entirely upon the Lord, genuine love can be shown toward another individual as it channels down from God through your focus on Him.  This will be the beginning evidence of genuine love.

            Finally, the third step is to ask God how you can love an individual.  1 Corinthians 13 contains God’s basis for love, and it is a very important Scripture to memorize when determining how to love a person.  One phrase in 1 Corinthians 13:5 says that love “Doth not behave itself unseemly.”  This can be interpreted to mean that we can display good manners to those God wants us to love.  Thus, when we base our love upon God’s love, it will show forth itself as we focus on Him and allow Him to love an individual through us.  Then, when we ask God to show us how to love a person, He will reveal different words, actions, and attitudes that we can apply to our lives that will show love to others.