WHEN LOVE HURTS
WHEN LOVE HURTS
I used to be an avid reader of “Cosmo” magazine in the nineties. I was so hooked, I would end up buying both the UK and US editions just to catch up on every juicy trend and gossip.
I remember coming across expressions like ” why does love ache?” Or something like “I love him so much, it hurts.”………..
Thinking seriously now………….
How do I think God felt when He let His only Son die on the cross for a sinner like me?? It was definitely not a tea party. It must have hurt and ached, yet He let it happen ..……”For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 KJV
Rewind quickly to Abraham, who in obedience to and fear of God had to take the Son of promise, Isaac, (whom he had waited 100 years to have and whom he loved so much)to be offered as a sacrifice to God. It is only best to imagine the agony and torture he would have been going through while preparing to do this. But Abraham loved God and could not imagine disobeying Him. Genesis 22:12 KJV
Wait a minute…..?.
What about Jesus Christ Himself? He took the blows, the scourging, which could not have been pleasant or fun! The cross (crucifixion, I mean) is possibly the most painful physical torture in all of history ……..nailing of hands and feet to a stick by banging the nails with a hammer? ? The height of wickedness and brutality!
Yet Jesus took it all because of love! “…………as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.Ephesians 5:2 KJV
Jesus gave Himself as a sacrifice because He loved us. Isaiah foretells of the suffering of Jesus when he said “He was oppressed and afflicted yet He opened not his mouth” Isaiah 53:7 KJV
Just like a parent who disciplines their child does so out of love “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.” Proverbs 13:24 KJV So it is that “whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” Hebrews 12:6 KJV
Love is not always a bed of roses (there are thorns here and there) and most times it would cost us a lot. Love is also about making sacrifices for the one (s) you love. And sometimes these sacrifices do hurt.
So even when we are chastened by God and it’s painful, know that its because of His steadfast love that never ceases and His mercy that endures forever and He still assures us that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38 -39 KJV
Oluyinka Ego-Martins ©