Tuesday November 3rd, 2020
*It has been a very long time since I wrote anything- and to be honest I almost didn't write this one. But these past few months have brought me to the bottom of myself. I did not like what I saw. I did not like me at all. These past few months have been filled with new places, people, and experiences that I will remember always. But they have also been very painful and full of some harsh truths I have had to face about myself. This post is about one of the lessons He has been teaching me. No matter how hard I try, no matter how far I run, no matter how well I think I have hidden from Him- He always brings me back to this place. This place of sweet surrender surrounded by His grace. I can fight it all I want; but I am His, always have been and always will be. May God bless you with these words and give you hope in Him. God is Love. Amen.
Love. A word used so frequently in society, it's lost its true purpose. But there is still hope; even in the midst of all the chaos and all the unsettledness surrounding us today- all is not lost. Love is not lost; it's just been forgotten.
Love, in it's purest form is more than a word, or a feeling, or an emotion. Love is not an emotion. Love is an action. It is to be seen and heard. Love is who we are meant to be. Love never fails. Love is still the greatest power known to man. Love can still move mountains. But Love has to start with you, and it has to start with me. Love needs soil to grow, and the only way to cultivate love in the garden of our hearts is by laying our souls down before a Loving God.
Many years ago, at the beginning of my christian walk, I attended a women's Bible study that was studying 1 Corinthians. I will never forget the lesson on Love in Chapter 13. Paul is writing to the Corinthians church about their discord, sinful behaviors and lack of love towards one another. The Corinthians church was a chaotic mess. I believe Paul writes this Chapter to remind them that without love they are absolutely nothing. Without love- we are absolutely nothing.
1 Corinthians 13 ESV
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It doesnot insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 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. 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. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Whenever I read these verses, my heart is pricked and my conscience is laid open before Him. The lesson that day was to use these verses as a mirror; hold myself up to the description of love- how do I fair?
If Love is patient, and I am to express and live love out- then am I patient with others and God? If Love is kind- am I kind? Love does not envy or boast- do I envy others and boast? Love is not arrogant- but I am. Love is not rude- but I have been, and am rude. Love does not seem its own way; yet I am selfish, and fight God for my own way every single day. Love does irritatable or resentful- but I am. (I confess my Road Rage and my irritability towards our world today. That is not love.)
Love does not rejoice in wrong doing, but I do. Sometimes I even cheer it on. Love rejoices with the truth. But I have denied truth time and time again because I have not loved. Compare my love with this love, and I fall short. But that's the beauty of Love- pure Love- God's Love.
Love bears all things, because He carries them for us. Love believes all things, because He proves His love for you every single day. (His Mercy is New Every Morning) Love hopes all things, because He is our future and our hope. Love endures all things, because He has endured it all for us. Love never ends, because He is without end.
Love is waiting to be seen in you and through you. Our society today needs the seeds of love to blossom in the hearts of His children and for us to sow it into the hearts of those He brings along your way. Stop comparing yourself to the girl next to you, or the model on TV. Hold the looking glass of love up to your soil, and let Him show you the more excellent way. Let Him work in you and through you as you walk out the hope, the faith and the love He has planted inside you. Your Love is beautiful- let it bloom. Amen?
No comments:
Post a Comment