Love, Truth, and Stability
We live in a world where people are increasingly lonely, unsettled, and unanchored. But it doesn’t need to be that way. We can change our focus and our priorities. Here are three key things people crave: love, truth, and stability.
Inherently we all want to realize these three things. And we need to pursue them. We must.
Love
People need love. We need others in our lives who care for us and want the best for us. People crave connection with others and to be in a loving relationship with them. We want people to love us. This starts with family and friends.
Love is reciprocal. Start by being lovable. This is because receiving love is easier when we extend love to others. Anyone who lacks love in their life should look inward and ask, “Am I lovable?”
We also have an innate need to love others. This is for our mutual benefit. Though it’s incorrect to conclude that if we give love, we’ll automatically receive it, but this is often the case.
Most importantly is to love God—to love our Creator and our Savior.
We love God and we love others. Jesus says these are the two greatest commandments (Matthew 22:36-40).
God created us for community—with both him and others. True love fulfills this need.
Truth
People crave truth. The claim among some is that we make our own truth—it’s whatever we want it to be. Yet it’s hard to find comfort in something we made up.
Instead, we need to find our truth from a source greater than us—from a higher authority. The Bible is that source of truth. It’s a firm foundation we can build our life upon.
A biblical truth guides us into pursuing what is good for us. It also protects us from what is bad. Though we may sometimes push against this truth, the reality is that we need it.
In this way God’s truth provides guardrails for our lives. It keeps us on track as we move forward and protects us from careening off our path to disaster.
Stability
People crave stability in their lives too. This is stability in their relationships, living conditions, and finances. A lack of stability produces stress.
Though living in a stress-free life is unrealizable, unsustainable, and unhealthy, most people would appreciate a little less stress. This suggests the need for increased stability.
Just as we want to be in loving relationships with others, we want stability in those relationships. This means being able to depend on others. It also means them being able to depend on us.
We also want stability in our basic living conditions: food, shelter, and clothes. Everything else is a bonus.
Last, we want financial stability. This doesn’t mean having an unlimited amount of money to buy whatever we want. It means having enough money to provide for our basic life needs.
Though sometimes instability is beyond our control, other times we inadvertently cause it. We may fail to cultivate and maintain relationships, make bad life decisions, or spend money unwisely. The result is instability—and needless stress.
People Crave Love, Stability, and Truth
People crave love. People crave stability. And people crave truth. We need these things in our lives. If we find our existence lacking, it may be because of a lack of love, truth, and stability.
Let’s start by loving God and then loving others. Next turn to biblical truth to guide us forward. These can lead us into increased stability.
It may not be an easy solution, but it’s the best one.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront a status quo faith and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.
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