LIVING LOVE!
Sunday’s Monday
I watched a sermon series from Pastor Andy Stanley titled “What Does Love Require Of Me” and it struck a spiritual never. The series is great, and I recommend viewing it on YouTube. There are many reasons to visit this issue but for today “it is Christmas” as many refer to it as the season of love. Most Christians specifically base love on acts of kindness which they perform for others in the name of Jesus. For nonbeliever’s, love seems to be based on far more self-centered reasons. The common denominator of this subject is everyone who has breath desires to be loved. By the same token, far too many who have breath today, fail to desire the understanding that God has for each of us on the subject!
Today’s reading is taken from 1 Corinthians 13 and it’s long but highly necessary to enter into a successful life of love. First is understanding the love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (ESV), 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Please if you will, read this scripture several times, to make sure you comprehend what it’s saying. “Then” read it one more time with your focus on those things which are absent or faint in your daily life.
Having done what is requested above, what is your revelation of how you and this world is exampling love? A great question to ask yourself before you entertain the idea of loving another human, is ask self “what is my motive?” Am I expecting a return or am I seeking to better a life, without thought of self? I keep hearing people say and I’m also guilty, “I love the Christmas season because people are a little nicer and more considerate of each other.” This statement is severely lacking in merit as each individual on this planet has the God given choice to love others or love self as much or little as desired. We find in 1 Corinthians 13:8 (ESV), Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. Just as God will always be God, love will forever exist as God is love which is explained in 1 John 4:16 (ESV), So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
Enough said about loving others! We all have an idea of how hard it can actually be to love the homeless, the rebellious, the obnoxious, the addict, the lost, the saved plus thousands more. Now here is where I’m coming from, please pay attention; I and you are one of those! Warning should you choose to love me, I have my quirks! Fortunately, “I am a work in process,” God is changing me daily to mold me into a more lovable creature and as my pastor says, “my part is to cooperate with Jesus in being as lovable as I can be, today!” We are to learn and live that which is written in 1 Corinthians 13:11-13 (ESV), 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. We are spiritual children growing in our love for Jesus!
My prayer for this week is for all to receive the revelation that the love for Jesus will make my small world a better place to live. My family, neighborhood, workplace, city and so on can be improved through the realization of loving people the same as Jesus loves each of us. Our own personal world can be made better for more than a mere season but for a year and then a lifetime (one day at a time). 1 John 4:16-19 (ESV), 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as He is so also are, we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because He first loved us. Amen
HAVE A BLESSED WEEK BY BEING A BLESSING TO OTHERS!
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