There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love
—1 John 4:18

Are you struggling today with the fact that someone you love doesn't love you? Are you feeling rejected? Are you waiting for someone to come along to "complete" you with his or her love?

Stop waiting or feeling sorry for yourself. Recognize that no other human being can ever complete you. Only God can do that work. One of the most important decisions you will ever make is the decision to accept God's love for you. God does not force you to love Him. He extends His love to you and invites you to receive His love and experience His love. You must choose.

When you know that God loves you with an infinite, unconditional, and unchanging love, you have a security inside you that no person can take way. You have a confidence that is rock solid. You have the kind of self-value and self-esteem that is based on the way God values and esteems you.

Love is incompatible with prejudice and resentment and anger and bitterness and unforgiveness. If you live with constant jealousy and fear, you need to check your "love status." What is it that you are not believing about God's love for you? What hidden motives and desires and attitudes are keeping you from experiencing God's love?

God is love, and if we are filled with God's Spirit, love will flow from us, for the fruit of the Spirit is love (Galatians 5:22). Love will be our automatic response (1 John 4:16). You cannot love God and hate your brother (vs. 20). When you walk in love, you shut the door to every demonic spirit and influence—whether it is pride, confusion, instability, disunity, strife, contention, anger, pain, hate, bitterness, resentment, or a lack of peace.

Love will allow you to live in a way that looks beyond someone's sin and sees grace (1 Peter 4:8). Love covers a multitude of sins. Love motivates you to stop talking about people and start praying for them. Love doesn't dismiss sin as sin—no, it "covers" sin with understanding, with compassion, with a humble admission that "there, but for the grace of God, go I." If you are going to be loving as Christ loves you, you will say "I'm sorry" a thousand times if you need to, because pride no longer stands in the way.

Find your place in the love of God, and you'll find your place in the hearts of those God puts in your life.

Related Texts: Proverbs 10:12; John 15:9–12; Romans 8:38–39; 1 Corinthians 13:4–8, 13; Ephesians 3:16–19