^&^

What is the substance of all things good? Hope, compassion, peace, joy, kindness, and the greatest of these: love.

When we fall in love with someone what are we falling in love with? Are we falling in love with something temporal? Something that can be seen? No. We fall in love with the caring things that person may do or the heart that person seems to have. What many fail to realize is that this is God’s love within. God is love. So why not give Him some acknowledgment? When someone does something nice for another person what source are they listening to? Their conscience... which is the voice of God. Any love one may feel was a gift from God that He wanted us to be able to experience here. It is the closest thing to heaven on earth. We can bring this to earth if we all start listening to the right source. Has God given up on us? Even though most of the world has turned against Him and joined to evil? No, so we shouldn’t either. Separate from evil and join to good.. then only good will come of it. So what does this mean? How do we separate ourselves from evil and join ourselves to good? If God is love then this must mean that we do not have the ability to experience the fullness of love without Him...but why? We don't have the ability to fully love without God because we were created in His image; He is our father. In the same way that a child is born with similar traits passed down from it's parents we are created with the traits of our loving creator. Everyone walks with God but few acknowledge Him. How would we feel if our child told us that they didn't need us? That those traits passed down to them from us were not from us? That would probably hurt us? When I found out that is what I was doing to God I realized how badly He was mistreated, and I also realized how badly I was mistreating myself when I chose to ignore Him. If I was not listening primarily to my conscience then I must have been listening to the only other source that I could listen to: Satan. I was only hurting myself when I did that. This is what God refers to as sin. I used to think of sin as something that was desirable. I didn't realize that I was bringing pain and suffering on myself by thinking this way nor did I realize that it wasn't even my thought. It was Satan's. When God asks us to obey Him He just wants us to listen to Him/our conscience, and since our conscience conveys only that which is positive then why should that be viewed in a negative light?

Often, we refer to abstaining from sin as being some heavy burden. We do not realize the benefit of doing so, and furthermore, we do not understand the context in itself. Over the years we have listened to Satan and allowed him to lead us down the wrong path when this could have simply been avoided by not listening to his thoughts. He has no right to tell us what to do unless we give it to him nor does he care of the dire need for us to listen to God instead. When listening to God we not only benefit ourself but we benefit others.. yet it seems there is a constant need to turn away from God. How is this benefiting us? This is bringing about sickness and disease among other things. Cancer, heart disease, and other ailments are a direct result of us succumbing to our sin. This seems to be a constant cycle unless we figure out what the root cause is: sin. Sin, in itself, is deadly and will only bring about negative results. So why do it? Has Satan confused us to the point in which we actually believe that our sin is benefiting us? Unfortunately, yes, this seems to be the case. So why are we allowing ourselves to be deceived when this is all a choice. We could choose not to listen to him. So why don’t we? It’s that simple. It’s just a choice. He has no power against us unless we give him power. Many have allowed him to convince them into believing that he is now in control and do not even realize this is going on subconsciously. It is important to recognize the deceit he is causing on the nations of people that God loves. Not one was created to belong to Satan, but sadly, God's own children are falling away from Him due to Satan’s lies, and God is outraged. These are his children? Not Satan’s. Why are they listening to someone that isn’t even their father? God is our father, and He is hurt that we continually disregard and ignore our conscience (His voice). He has been there for us since He created us in the womb... nurturing and loving us. Guiding us to make the right decisions and continually leading us in the right direction, but we fail to see or even acknowledge that He is the one doing that. This is listed as our “instinct” or our “conscience” in the dictionary, but does God stop helping us even though He doesn’t get any credit for constantly guiding and protecting us from harm? No. All He is asking for is a little bit of acknowledgment for protecting us from the enemy. He wants us to notice Him. That He is the one doing this. That He loves us. And yes, He wants us to listen to Him instead of Satan because it will benefit US. Choosing not to sin means happiness, love, and lack of grief… why has that become a burden? Why do we believe that sin will produce positive results when it NEVER HAS?

This is why God allows us to let our sin influence us negatively. He does not want it to happen, but we choose it. He is not some sovereign control freak who walks around punishing the wicked light heartedly. This hurts God when we punish ourselves through sin even more so than it hurts ourselves. We must realize this and stop doing this to God. It breaks His heart when we “choose” to hurt ourselves, but He must allow us to do so until we come to the realization that choosing sin will only produce negative results. Many have chosen to believe that Satan doesn’t even exist. This is a ridiculous concept. How would it be possible that he doesn’t exist? Look at the evil in the world today? Where does all of that come from? Who are these people listening to? We were not created to be evil but we chose this when listening to Satan. But it is just a choice. And in the same way we can choose to listen to God... so why not do that instead? God is our conscience so then what does a conscience do? It forewarns of upcoming danger, tells one to pay attention, or simply gives encouragement in bleak times. This is the substance of God's existence: love, peace, joy, happiness, and compassion. The results of sin are brought on ourselves when we choose to listen to Satan and not only are we hurting ourselves, but we are hurting others when we listen to him. Why are we choosing pain and suffering? Satan brings forth thoughts of bitterness, lack of hope, fear, apprehension, and eventually he will attempt to take our identity. So why would we choose to listen to someone that is trying to hurt us as well as destroy us?

....

"A recent study conducted a few years ago surveyed 112, 232 students attending a national sample of 236 colleges. Of these students, more than three-fourths believe in God, and more than two in three say that their spiritual beliefs “provide me with strength, support, and guidance.”

Three-fourths (74%) of the freshmen also say that they feel a “sense of connection with God/higher power that transcends my personal self.” When asked about their personal views of God, more than half (56%) perceive God as “love” or as the “creator,” and about half (49%) experience God as a “protector.” Forty-four percent of the students say that, in the past year, they frequently “felt loved by God.”"

The results of the study concluded that there is a positive correlation between the students overall mental/physiological health and spirituality. The students that claimed to have spiritual fulfillment also portrayed a more positive outlook on life and displayed better coping skills. They were more secure with themselves emotionally and cognitively than those that did not have a high level of spiritual interest/involvement.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

There are several definitions of love.. however I've found that none quite encompass the actual meaning like the above verse.