"Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart."   Proverbs 3:3

How beautiful are these words of Solomon!  And how wise.  If you do this, he goes on to say, "Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man."

But do you sometimes get discouraged?  I know I do.  With some people, it  seems no amount of love can ever reach them.  No matter how much you love them, they still pull away from you.  Or they reject you.  Or they are unkind to you, maybe even hateful.

No one ever said it would be easy.  Remember in Matthew 5, Jesus said in the last of what we today call the beatitudes, "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.  Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you."  You can read Isaiah's account of his suffering here on earth in chapter 53.  He suffered for you and me.  I'm sure his heart breaks a million times each day over the people who reject his love.

And yet his perfect love remains.

It is not like our selfish, greedy love.  It doesn't demand perfection, like we so often do.  It is infinitely connected to mercy and grace.  It is given to the undeserving.  It is forgiving.

Ravi Zacharias, in his book Deliver Us From Evil; Restoring the Soul in a Disintegrating Culture, notes that history, looked at not through a secular,  materialistic point of view, but instead through the filter of God's word, shows us God's great love for each and every one of us.  We do not, as prevailing  thought tries to tell us, "just happen to be here, clothed apes, a blip on the radar screen of time, a cosmic accident."  Rather, "our existence is by the designed will of our heavenly Father who is ever in control of our universal scene.  Each of us is here at this specific time within the compass of His sovereign will."

Know this. God has a plan for you.  If you have accepted his gift of love, his Son Jesus Christ as your savior, he can transform your life.  That is not to say that your life will be perfect.  There will still be sorrow and pain.  But there will also be a relationship with the one who will never leave you nor forsake you.  And that relationship is what makes all the difference.

Zacharias relates in his book a chapter from history that is a miraculous example of the transforming power of God:

Historians tell us that Corinth was a city destined for greatness.  Strategically located, she took most of the traffic between the north and the south of Greece, and from the east to the west of the Mediterranean.  Riches came her way from many directions: balsam from Arabia, carpets from Babylon, slaves from Phrygia and dates from Phoenicia.  However, it was not so much her material wealth that made her a byword among the nations as it was her     impoverished spirit.  If you had wanted to defame someone as profligate and unfaithful, you would call him or her a "Corinthian."  What was it that spoke of her immorality?  That story is visible today even in her rubble.

Atop a hill just on Corinth's outskirts sit the remains of the temple of Aphrodite.  Aphrodite was thought to be a goddess who, living in continual infedelity to her husband, symbolized promiscuity.  Finally he was able to set a trap for her that revealed her wretchedness to all.  According  to the myth, when she was thus exposed, she fled, covering her face in shame. But out of her illicit relationships were born two children, Eros and Phobos, from which we derive the words eroticism and fear -- one an insatiable appetite, the other a paralyzing emotion. How articulate is the past, once again, in its stones and in its lessons.

Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, 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 perserveres.   Love never fails....Now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love.     1 Corinthians 13:4-7, 13

So, this month, as the calender turns our thoughts toward love, remember the source of real love.  If we are discouraged, let us ask God to instill us with his love, to encourage us to continue loving others, even when they hurt us, to help us overcome evil with his Word.

And if you despair over the state of the world today, if you sometimes feel that everyone out there is a lost cause, if you are dragged down by the overwhelming evil you see around you, let me recommend Ravi Zacharias' book to you. I have related just one of the inspiring stories he tells. It is beautifully written, insightful and encouraging. In fact, I received as a Valentine's gift a few years ago!

You can order it, I believe, on the Ravi Zacharias International Ministries Web site: www.rzim.org.