God has crowned the Israelites with victory, and even though they celebrate the victory, they need to be prepared for future challenges. They are fine for a while and then forget about God and repent and are saved again, rejoice over the victory and the cycle begins again.
God has blessed us with so much, including our salvation, but we, too, must be prepared to do battle over and over again against evil. Satan is alive and well and working in our world. His basic way of working is to divide and conquer and he's doing a great job.
Whether it is theology or politics or cultural differences, gender issues, fear of the young, fear of the stranger, and so many other ways that Satan works to separate us one from another, he seems to be winning the battle. This battle can only be won with love and love seems to be in short supply!
God has given us free will. This is a wonderful gift and our will is the gift that makes us capable of choosing to love.
Love is so much more than an emotion, a feeling. Love is what makes us do the right thing when we don't want to, when the person who needs our help is someone we dislike, maybe an enemy.
We even need this love with people we like at times. Spouses disappoint, children frustrate us and friends can betray us. How we handle all those things can challenge our ability to love.
Love is choosing to do good and choosing not to do wrong to someone regardless of feelings. Hate is also a choice and goes against everything we say we believe when we choose Christ.
If we want to prepare for the battles that will come up in our lives, then we need to work on being more loving. When we are in situations where we might want to lash out in anger, let's ask God to help us love; when we are hurt by someone, ask God for help. The more often we choose love, the happier we will be.
