I was watching this old TV show where the mother was confessing to the daughter that she knew her now deceased husband had an affair. The catch was she thought he had ended the affair years ago only to find out at his death that he had not ended it at all but instead bought the woman a house and was taking care of her until the day he died.

The daughter’s response was to remind the mother that despite that, he loved her (the mother). But the mother’s response was very powerful. She said, “I know but he didn’t give up anything to do it.”

We think that those words, “I love you” are the end all be all but they simply are not. They are just words. I love dogs. I mean I love them but I don’t have any because to have a dog requires sacrifices I am not prepared to make. I would have to give up working late, traveling frequently and just the freedom of not having a living creature dependent on you for their existence. So, I can love dogs without giving up anything to do it but that means I love them from a distance.

But there are few things we can truly love and not give up something to do it. If you say you love your life then you have to give up certain things to do it. There are foods we just cannot eat if we really want to love ourselves. There are things we did in our 20’s and even 30’s that we cannot enter middle age doing in order to love ourselves and our bodies. There has to be some kind of sacrifice.

I am always amazed at how people caught in affairs will say they never meant for it to happen, but it just did. No, this is a deception. When you get married you must give up the option of allowing feeling to develop for another person. If it means changing jobs, moving, whatever it takes you must give up something to maintain the promise of your marriage vows and the integrity of your family.

Real love requires sacrifice. And God gave us the first example in giving us Christ.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).

If you want to walk in the depths of God’s love and experience His power on a personal level, then I have to tell you that you will need to give up something to love God. That is real love.

It has to go beyond just an occasional Sunday service or sporadic donations. We have to give God our time by going to church and Bible study and then spending time with Him in prayer and reading the Word outside of church. We must also give our time in service to the Lord. We must give tithes and offerings to build the kingdom. There are lifestyle habits we must give up in order to live as the Bible tells us. We often have to give up being part of the crowd.

If you are not sacrificing anything to love God then you must examine whether you are truly loving Him. Or is it like me and dogs where when they are around I can enjoy them but they are not interwoven into my daily life? Are you loving God from a distance?

I believe we have all confessed great love for God at one time but if we really looked hard we can see how we have been keeping Him at a distance. I have made that discovery of myself in the past. But what is so wonderful about Him is that every day is a new chance to do the right thing, the love thing.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9).

So today, make a sacrifice. Give something up for God to show you mean business. You are in this to love Him and serve Him all the way. And watch the love between you both grow deeper and wider. And remember Jesus’ promise to us.

“But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.’ Then Peter began to say to Him, ‘See, we have left all and followed You.’ So Jesus answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.’” (Mark 10:27-30).