Someone has said that love is something you do -- and that's true. Love is a conscious or subconscious decision to give ourselves to another person. There are many ways to love, but we're loving only when we desired to be. In other words, we have to decide to be loving -- loving is an act of the will.

Some leaders once asked Jesus: Which is the greatest of the God's Commandments? His reply was: " Thou shall love the Lord your God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind." (Matthew 22:37) The Most Important Thing We Can Do Is to Love God.

And then Jesus said that the second most important command of God is to love the our neighbor as we love ourselves. In just a few words Jesus gave us the key to life. If we are willing to love God, love our neighbors and love ourselves, our lives are transformed day by day. Why? Because in being willing to love, we learn to receive love, and love, especially the love of God, does more to change lives than anything in the whole universe.

Because we are afraid of being rejected, it is much easier to love someone that already loves us. That's why there isn't more love in the world -- we withhold our love until the other person gives us their love.

You see, we really do have to decide to love. We need to give acceptance -- not rejection, forgiveness instead of resentment, kindness in place of contempt, and forbearance instead of impatience. The problem is we don't have the strength to change ourselves. But God has the strength and wants to give it to us if we are willing to obey His command to love -- even to love someone who doesn't love us first.

The Bible says that God's strength is "made perfect" in our weakness and that we can even glory in our weakness if we are willing to do our part and trust him to do his part. God's love is so powerful that it flows right through us to other people when we open ourselves to Him. That's strange but it's true. When we accept the love God offers us, there is so much peace and joy that we naturally began to love others and even ourselves.

So you see the answer to the our dilemma is God Himself -- He loves us first and keeps on loving as even though we reject Him and go our own way. The scripture says that we can love God because He first loved us and that His love never changes, never dies. That means we don't have to withhold our love anymore -- we can love God knowing that He won't reject us. And when we receive His love, we not only receive power to love our neighbor as we love ourselves but we receive power to become children of God.

"To all who received him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God." (John 1:12)

God has said in the Bible that "we are like sheep who have gone astray" and that "all of us have sinned and fall short of His glory." He also said that "result of sin his death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." He says that if we turn from our sin knowing that Jesus paid the penalty for our sin on the cross and receive Him into our heart and life,   He will give us the power to become His children. That power is His Holy Spirit giving us new life from heaven. We are born again and become "new creatures in Christ Jesus." And, because we have spiritual life, which is the life of God, we shall live with Him forever.

We not only receive eternal life, but as His children we love Him and receive His love -- and that makes it possible to become willing to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Love really is something we do -- it is something we must be willing to do. If you are willing to love God, tell Him so. If you have never repented of your sin and received Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, do so today. You will see your life began to change as the love and power of God begin to flow through you to others. You will see old things pass away and all things become new as you love God and accept His love and truly become a new person in Jesus Christ.