The song with the above title by Don Francisco starts with the following:
“So you say you can’t take it
The price is too high
Your feelings have gone
It seems your river’s run dry
You never imagined
It could turn out so rough
You give and give and give
And still it’s never enough”
The world gives us a definition of love that is all about feelings – slushy, sentimental emotions that can change with circumstances or even the state of our health.
Love is an action. It is putting the need of somebody else higher than your own. It is saying no to self. The exhausted mother does not feel like getting up in the middle of the night because her screaming child has thrown up all over her bed. She does not feel like cleaning her up, changing the bed clothes, mopping the floor and soothing her back to sleep. Her actions have nothing to do with any sentimental slushy feeling. If anything, she is more likely to feel resentment or irritation. Yet, her actions are love.

My mother is old and frail and hardly gets out of bed. My brother and sister-in-law live on the same property, and every day they bring her food, feed her dogs and generally look after her, taking her to doctors when needed or sometimes hospital in the middle of the night. My mother is not an easy person. A doctor told her she is a very difficult woman. She did not contradict him. So it is out of no fuzzy sentimental feeling that my brother and sister-in-law are acting. They are loving our mother. Feelings have nothing to do with it.
John says, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. (1 John 3:16a NIV)
The song ends:
“Jesus didn’t die for you
Because it was fun
He hung there for love
Because it had to be done
And in spite of the anguish
His work was fulfilled
Cause love is not a feelin’
It’s an act of your will
Love is not a feelin’
It’s an act of your will
Now I wouldn’t try to tell you
That it’s easy to stand
Satan’s throwin’ everything
That’s at his command
But Jesus is faithful
His promise is true
And the things that He asks
He gives the power to do
You know He didn’t die for you
Because it was fun
He hung there for love
Because it had to be done
And in spite of the anguish
His work was fulfilled
Cause love is not a feelin’
It’s an act of your will
Love is not a feelin’
It’s an act of your will
Love is not a feelin’
It’s an act of your will”
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Don Francisco
My Prayer
Lord Jesus, You commanded me to “Love one another as I have loved you.” You know that is impossible for me. As You live in me, please love through me. I surrender my puny efforts to try to love. Amen.