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There is no love that can compare to the love of God who sent His only Son
to die for a people that deserve only death.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." 
John 3:16

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Romans 5:8

God talks a lot about love and He has told us that love is a very powerful force.

But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.   1 Corinthians 13:13

What is love and how important is it in God's sight?  God's word says this...

¹If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.   ²If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.    ³And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.    
1 Corinthians 13:1-3

 

SO WHAT IS THIS FORCE CALLED LOVE?

⁴Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,   ⁵does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,   ⁶does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;   ⁷bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Therefore we should not take it lightly when He tells us to love.  Whether it be to love Him with all our heart or to love one another.  Love is more than a "feeling" - reread the list and see how many of the aspects of love are a feeling and how many are a choice.  When we love we "choose" just as Christ chose to live among us.

Love your God.

"You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might."  Deuteronomy 6:5

And he answered, "YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF."
Luke 10:27

Love your neighbor - 

If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture,
"YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF," you are doing well.
James 2:8

For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF."
Galatians 5:14

¹⁶This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. ¹⁷If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? ¹⁸Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. ¹⁹This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence ²⁰whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.  1 John 3:16-20

Love your enemy - God wants us to hold ourselves to a higher standard than that of the world.  All of us are creations of God and He wants us to treat each other accordingly.  When we treat someone with an unloving heart we are telling God that His creation is not worthy of loving. 

"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.  "If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.  "If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount.  
Luke 6:32-34

"Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.   Matthew 5:42

"For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?   Matthew 5:46

Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.   1 Corinthians 13:8

What about feelings?

There were times when I didn’t feel God’s love. I could choose to dwell on that feeling, letting it carry me into a state of self-pity, or I could say, “Lord, I don’t feel loved. That is the truth. That is where I am right now. But, Lord, Your Word says that You love me. In fact, You’ve said that You have loved me with an everlasting love.  (Jeremiah 31:3)

You never stop loving me. Your love for me is one thing that stands when all else has fallen. (1 Corinthians 13)  Your Word says there is no partiality with You. That means You don’t love anyone else in the world more than you love me. So, Lord, I thank You that I am loved by You.   (Acts 10:34)  Your Word is truer than how I feel.”

I began to realize that this kind of response to my feelings gave me the freedom both to be honest with God about my feelings and to choose to believe God’s Word when my feelings contradict His promises.

At other times I have felt afraid or lonely or depressed. My heart has literally ached in anguish over circumstances of life, and in those moments I have been the most tempted to doubt the truth of God’s Word. But instead I chose with my will to believe His Word. Thousands of times my prayers have begun, “Lord, I feel…but, Lord, Your Word says…”

And I’ve found that He does bring my emotions in line with His Word, in His own timing and in His way.

We are created as emotional beings

When I’ve been tempted to condemn myself for how I feel, it has helped me to remember that God created us in His image and that part of His image is that we are emotional beings. Feelings aren’t wrong. Even Christ had feelings. He didn’t “try not to feel.” He did not hide His emotions; instead, He took them into His relationship with His Father. He was honest, real, authentic. In the Garden of Gethsemane the night before His crucifixion, Scripture tells us that Jesus was “distressed,” “deeply grieved,” “troubled,” and “in agony.” (Matthew 26:37-38; Mark 14:33; Luke 22:44)   Jesus expressed how He felt and trusted the Father in the midst of His feelings.

We, too, have immeasurable freedom to be candid with the Lord about our feelings, to tell Him honestly where we are and what is going on in our lives.

How do we respond?

The Bible promises that, for those of us who truly love God, everything that happens in our lives will have the effect of molding us into Christ’s image.  (Romans 8:28-29)  Some of us may have prayed a prayer similar to this: “Lord, I pray You’d make me more like You. I pray that You would conform me to the image of Christ.” Often, what we really want is for God to give us an anesthetic so we can be unconscious while He performs surgery on our hearts in order to conform us to Christ’s perfect character. We don’t want to wake up until the transformation is complete! We want the result but not the painful process.

But God doesn’t work that way. The Lord is concerned about what we go through, but I believe He is more concerned about how we respond to what we go through. That response is a matter of our wills. He allows the trials, temptations, and pressures of life to come so that we have the opportunity to respond either by trusting our feelings and life experiences or by taking Him at His word.

I have learned to get into the habit of taking God at His word—and now it is a habit! You and I can either grow accustomed to listening to our feelings, thoughts, and circumstances, letting them control us, or we can be in the habit of taking God at His word despite our feelings and life experiences. We need to choose with our wills to believe that His Word is truer than our feelings.

I have made a lifetime commitment to bank my life on the Word of God, and God has honored that commitment. And yet, there have been times when I could have easily gone back on my commitment because I couldn’t believe that anything was truer than what I was going through—times when my feelings have screamed 180 degrees in the opposite direction of God’s Word but over and over I have found God to be faithful to His Word.