Enduring Love

I have been thinking quite a bit about the love of God. The description God uses for himself is love. When we think of all the things God has created and how mighty and powerful He is it's odd that he chooses to describe Himself as love.
Definition on Dictionary.com of Love: The benevolent affection of God for His creatures, or the reverent affection due from them to God.
I don't think I will ever really understand God's capacity of love when it relates to us humans.
I'm going to be honest here with you Gems lately I have been feeling kind of numb in the love emotion.
I know I love. I love my kids and my friends. I have love for the homeless and really people in general but I haven't been “feeling” love. I can't really explain it.
I'll participate in an act of love like helping the needy or ministering to a hurting person and my heart is sincere in my actions but my emotions seem to be a bit detached. Have you ever felt this way?
I started asking God about it and pretty much asking if I was getting hard hardhearted or worse yet cynical.
The Lord showed me three things that I will share with you. If you have felt this way perhaps it will shed some light on your feelings as well.
The first thing He showed me had to do with obedience.
Loving people is not about feeling like it, it's about obeying what God told us to do.
God told us to love one another, period. There was nothing about if you feel like it or if they are worthy or if they even want you to.
Love is a decision more than a feeling at times. I'm sure you can relate.
I know in my life there are many times I had to decide to love someone and forget how I felt.
The second thing I felt the Lord was telling me had to do with emotions. Because I'm such an emotional person, I know that shocks you, He was doing a new work in my emotions.
When your emotional and you reach out to the hurting it's easy to get so wrapped up in the emotion of it all you don't always say or do the tough stuff. Sometimes you need to give advice or take hold of a situation that requires tough love or make a hard decision.
I think in the days ahead our lives are going to change drastically because of our Countries decisions and our own personal decisions. Life as we know it is going to change and we will get a taste of what our grandparents dealt with.
I think the Lord is preparing my heart to be strong so I can continue to be a help to the people around me. Another part of that is being able to guard your heart so you don't get your feelings hurt easily or again you won't be effective.
The third thing the Lord showed me was in Psalms 136. I'm not going to write the whole thing but as always I encourage you to read it. I do want to point out a few verses.
His love endures forever. This phrase is between every verse you read in this Psalm, for example:
1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good.
His love endures forever.
2 Give thanks to the God of gods
His love endures forever.
3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords:
His love endures forever.
It continues this way to the end of the chapter. It's a reminder to us that in everything God does His love endures forever.
It's great to say God is good and to feel his love when He is taking care of us or protecting us and life in general is good.
BUT what if things are happening that you don't think are good. What if you are being persecuted or dealing with depression or sickness. What if you have been waiting for something you know God promised you and it's been years and it still hasn't happened? What then? Is His love still good? Do you still feel loved?
Let's look at a couple of verses further down in the chapter.
17 to him who struck down great kings,
His love endures forever.
18 and killed mighty kings—
His love endures forever.
Struck down and killed... Sometimes what looks horrible in the worlds eyes could very well be part of God's plan.
As I have been pondering on this whole love thing the Lord reminded me that He alone is God and His plan will go forward whether I think it's fair or not.
The thing I and perhaps you need to remember is the Bible says He will work out all things for the good to those who love Him. Gems, we don't get to decide what "good" looks like.
BUT do you love Him and feel loved when things are not going the way you want?
What if your situation didn't change? What if where your at is where your staying?
Do you still give thanks to the Lord for He is good and know His love endures forever?
The second part of our definition of love was the reverent (deeply respecting) affection due from them ( his creation) to God.
The Creator loved his creations (us) and our reverence is due Him.
Interesting...
Our reverence is due Him because He loves us and His love endures forever. It endures through all the junk we give Him. It endures through all the injustice in the world and it endures when He's teaching you a tough lesson.

I had a situation happen today that really hurt my feelings and to be honest I'm kind of glad it happened. It made me realize my feelings and emotions are working just fine. I still had them and they obviously could still be hurt.
When my feelings are hurt
His love endures forever
When I feel betrayed
His love endures forever
Gems we need to write our own life verse daily.
God is love. I don't always understand it but I am thankful for it.
I pray I will be found worthy of the job He has for me in the days to come. I pray I will continue to rejoice and praise Him no matter what my circumstances are and I'm thankful there is a difference between hard hardhearted and discerning.
If you are in a place where you feel your “feeling” different perhaps the Holy Spirit is getting you ready for a journey too.
Ask Him to reveal His plan to you and give thanks until He does cause He is good and His love endures forever no matter what your circumstances look like.