October 16, 2020
We spend our lives trying to gain certain things and are full of joy when we get them. Our first car, our first job, our first home. Reputation and prestige and influence. The list is long. But, is it possible to have all those things and not have the most important thing? Here’s what the Apostle Paul said:
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)
Without the love of God flowing through your life, you have missed the most important thing. All you are is nothing, all you have is nothing, and all you have from all you do amounts to nothing. Pretty sobering.
WHAT IS REAL LOVE?
The word used by Paul is this passage is not mere human affection. It is the Divine quality that always responds in self-sacrifice. It is the highest description of who God is and is what He has planned for everyone He created. Without the supernatural experience that places God’s Spirit in us, we have none of this love.
Lest we confuse this love with something else, Paul holds up the love of God like a prism and turns it in the light to show us its brilliant, multi-colored beauty (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). If he had not done this, we would think love is merely a sentimental feeling, presently only when we “feel it.” But God’s love is far greater. It endures and shines in the worst of times and hardest of circumstances, even with our enemies.
DO YOU HAVE THE LOVE OF GOD AND DOES IT HAVE YOU?
Walk thoughtfully through these 16 questions based on Paul’s description of love and evaluate your life carefully.
The only possibility of living with this kind of love is to come into a relationship with Jesus Christ by faith. When that happens, Christ comes to live in you, and you have all the love you will ever need for God is love. Daily, surrender control of your life to Him. Give Him your life as His instrument and then instantly, aggressively respond to everything the love of God tells you to do.
As you let Him love with His Divine love through you, you will have gained the highest life and the greatest thing of all!
Father, thank You for providing a way to that I can know the love of God and that others can be touched by Your love through me. I gladly give you my body today to use as Your instrument. Shed abroad your love in my heart by the Holy Spirit and love through me today.
December 06, 2024
God understands us. He knows it is hard for us to stand in faith (particularly in the midst of trouble) without hearing from a higher Source. Without a promise from Him.
He is always waiting to meet us where we are to see if we will cooperate.
December 04, 2024
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