"And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." (Matt 24: 12-13) Have you heard the saying, "love hurts"? This statement stems from people who have had their heart broken, shattered and abused by people they selflessly loved. Ministering among the youth has granted me privilege to hear stories of girls whose hearts and love has been abused by their loved ones. A girl was raped by an elderly cousin. Another girl was impregnated and abandoned by her boyfriend twice! One guy could not hold his tears as he narrated the story of how a girl she loved destroyed his life, career, business and left him after he lost all his money. Why does it hurt to love people at times; and what do we do when it hurts to love? Do we make an exception and stop loving?.
Before God commanded us to love He knew that many people will not reciprocate our love. And truth be told most of what we call love is not love. True love the Bible says casteth away all fears. The reason we fall victim of abuses is because we replace love with something else. The girl whose boyfriend impregnated and abandoned thinks her love was abused but what she had with the boyfriend was not love. Love will not cause you to fornicate or sleep with people who aren't your spouse. What young people term love today is based on ideas gotten from worldly songs, movies and the press. To understand true love, we must make the scriptures our reference point. And it is hard to have our love abused when we love like Jesus asked us to because true love - the agape - carries with it the power of God which can break every barrier.
But in the rare occassion when people abuse our love, Jesus says that the only reason that would happen is when people's hearts are filled with satanic wickedness. The devil knows the power of love, and sometimes he will try to kill it and stop us from loving by setting us up to meet obstacles and wicked people who will abuse our love. But God says he that endures to the end shall be saved. He that keeps loving in spite of the odds shall be saved. The love of many people will wax cold. Many people will stop loving, will give up on love, will decide to fight wickedness with wickedness. But those people will fail. The true strategy for overcoming such wickednesses is to keep loving to the end. Love is not a game. You don't love people to manipulate them or try to manipulate people to love you. Love is a gift - one that we commanded tpo give unconditionally!
Keep loving; keep winning!