Why Are People Afraid of Love?

Chapter 1
Signs of the Times

Jesus spoke in the Gospel "Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. (Matthew 24: 12), most translations speak basically the same thing, that wickedness, iniquity, wrong doings will all increase and many will withhold their love. I believe that we are living in these times. Love has become almost a distant trait. Most cannot remember or even know when love was real in their lives. Many have closed their hearts, minds and even their lives to the idea or possibility of loving again. I asked the Lord, soon after my divorce from a marriage of almost 20 years. I asked Him not to allow my heart to become callous, cold or closed. Also, I asked Him, without knowing how important this would be during this season, stage or journey of singleness, not to make me so single that I become selfish and self-seeking. I can say that He has answered those prayers. However, it isn’t without having many trials, but I still keep my faith in Him. We must remember a basic universal and spiritual law and concept, that God is love. Love is the very being and nature of God. There is nothing wrong with Him or with Love. Love has never failed nor can it fail or pass away at any time.
Jesus continues to speak "But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. (Matthew 24:13) The word endures means to keep pressing on, keep having faith, and keep trying and not giving up even when the pain is difficult to bear. Endures can be defined as to suffer (something painful or difficult) patiently, to remain in existence, to last. Endures has synonyms like last, live on, go on, survive, persist, continue, preserve, and remain. So let’s read this again, but the one who keep trying, pressing and continues to love to the end, he will be saved. We usually will read this as an end time prophecy; however, I want to consider using it as a message about Love in our times or last days. Yes, it is a message for the end of times and a sign of the last days. I believe it is a principle that applies to our lives, today. We have to keep trusting and believing that God will provide and that living by faith will produce in our lives our needs until the ends of our days. Being saved is a product of endurance when it comes to believing in Jesus as our Savior. Likewise, if we substitute saved for love, this passage will read as such – The one who keeps trying, not giving up and having the faith in love, until the end, will be loved. This is just a play on words but Jesus could be saying that you should never stop loving no matter what because God is love.
In our lives, we will have numerous setbacks and pitfalls; however, God wants us to remain in faith and keep putting our trust in Him. Just a reminder from the scriptures, faith works only by love. It doesn’t work when we choose, but it works all the times by love. Love has never been weakened because of lawless acts or any wrong suffered. We cannot control what someone does but we can control and minimize its affect upon our lives. God sees a new day waiting for all who put their trust in Him. Just in the early days of the Church, Christ warned that many false prophets would arise and lawlessness will increase. Now put this in the context of love and relationship building, many of us have experienced what we thought was the final love to find it later revealed as a false alarm. However, we have to decide, do we allow our hearts to become callous and full of dust or do we continue to search for what is true and lasting when it comes to a loving relationship? I really believe that most people want to be loved and give love in return. Therefore, we have to recognize when we are faced with this fear of love and know that it is up to each one of us to do something about it.
Apostle Paul spoke of Love as the greatest of all and a lasting gift. When everything else has departed or failed Love remains. Love doesn’t keep reminding us of our past pains or hurts but the opportunity to hope and expect God’s total gift of Love. This is what the previous poem is about; I wrote it in early 2002. Never knew that is would be used in a book on the subject. I hope you will agree that Love is still a gift from God. The reason I am capitalizing the word Love is because Love is God and God is Love. Love is that important of a need and desire in in our lives. I am finding that many can no longer embrace the concept of Love existing for them. It’s sort of peculiar that we can question loving but we seldom question the fear of loving. We think that we can predict and pick the times and ways that love should come into our lives. However; the creator of it all isn’t on our time table of scheduled events. His ways are not like our ways nor are His thoughts like our thoughts, thank God for that. God is Love. God has a great responsibility and let’s keep the responsibility of match making with Him. God loved us even before we ever knew him. He existed while we were lawless and full of iniquity. God knew that we had an opportunity to discover His great gift of Love. Let’s read Matthew 24:12 in a couple of different translations of the bible:
Sin will be rampant everywhere and will cool the love of many. (Matthew 24:12, TLB)
For many others, the overwhelming spread of evil will do them in—nothing left of their love but a mound of ashes. (Matthew 24:12, MSG)
These are just a couple of translations, as you notice; reading in a different version of the Bible can enlighten the same scripture with more interpretative meaning.
May you reflect upon the way love is described as cooled off and mound of ashes. I believe that God has sent this book “Why are People Afraid of Love” to do a work within the hearts of souls that are longing to be loved before love become waxed cold and lifeless as a mound of ashes.

So why are people afraid of Love?