Today, instead of sharing with you three things I am thankful for, I want to share something God began speaking to me about.

Tonight God broke my heart in the area of love. Well, actually He shattered it into a million pieces. But you get the point.

The two greatest commandments He has given us are to first love Him, and second only to this, love others.

But why do we struggle with this so much? Why is it such a struggle for us to love others?

I think in this fallen world we live in, because we are imperfect people, love has somehow become all about what others can do for us. How can that person meet my needs? How can that person make me happy? How can that person fix me?

The first thing I realized tonight, is that it is not the job of others to meet our needs. God is the one Who created us, and He created us with a need for Him. There are voids in us that only He can fill, and needs only He can truly and deeply meet. He is the One we need to look to in order to give us what we need – joy, strength, comfort, refuge, security, fixing, saving, love, happiness, and everything else we could possibly need.

The second thing I realized, and I mean really, deeply realized, is that love is not about what others can do for us. Love is about what we can do for others. After God meets all of our needs, we no longer have the need for others to do so. We are freed up to focus on how we can help, love, and care for others. We can focus on what we can give to them, instead of what they can give to us.

Love was never meant to be a selfish thing that is always thinking about me, me, me. Love, true love, was, and still is, all about putting others first, loving them to the best of our ability, what we can give to them, and caring for them in the different ways they need.

There is always more love we can give to others. Always more. Always. Especially because God is love, the source of love, and He is always with us.

May your goal be, in any relationship, to always out-love each other. Not according to the way you give or receive love, but according to the way the other person gives and receives love.

I challenge you to start now, instead of waiting. It may be too late by the time you decide to begin taking your focus off of yourself, and putting it on others.