Love

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² 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. ³ If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.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. 1 Corinthians 13:1-7

We see from the passage that God highly regards love but not a fleshy type of love that has strings attached or wants something in return. But a true no strings attached love where you are loved regardless of how you may or may not measure up in the eyes of man. He even regards it over the empty works that men may do in his name. I work at a restaurant, and it sort of reminds me of a scenario I face often. Say you have an outstanding team member they really are exceptional however they refuse to work with the team often going around others to make themselves known or look better oftentimes hurting the team in the process. I have to tell these people yeah you are good at that but if you can’t work on a team with the people around you then you are worthless to me. No one can do everything alone we need each other. I can take a mediocre team member with a good attitude willing to work with the people around them and do more than I ever could with one all-star. If we take the time to love on and invest in the people around us, you never know the difference it may make in someone’s life. I feel like we spend so much time in competition with people we are supposed to work with we make things so hard on ourselves. The enemy tricks us into quarreling with one another and what does the bible say about that? ²⁵ But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. Matthew 12:25

1st Corinthians goes on to say in Verse 8

⁸ Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 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.

I look at it like we are a team we are a body. We may not always like one another or agree on everything but God has called us to Love one another. The scripture even says ⁸ Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love 1 John 4:8. It goes on to say things like love covers a multitude of sins, that it cast out fear, that it covers offenses and binds all things together in harmony that by this love they will know you are a disciple. Love I would say is just as important and arguably more important than all the prophecies and works in his name, after all, it was an act of love that saved all of us. The act of love Christ made on the cross he had every excuse to not want to do we didn’t deserve it by any means, but he loved us. It’s so important that we keep love in our hearts for one another. He has even commanded us to love our enemies. This is how we will be set apart in this hour, this is how we will start a revival in this hour. People are so caught up on miracles and yes, they are important and necessary however Love is a miracle in this day have you looked around people are hard-hearted. They have no compassion for the people around them.

We must also examine ourselves according to the word of the Lord. The Verse above says 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. If we find these things present in our hearts because of a recent disappointment or a series of uncontrollable circumstances that have hurt us, we must ask God to help us to remove these things and to guard our hearts against such things so that we can remain in him and his promises. If not, we risk our hearts becoming hard. 

If we allow resentment, disappoint and or even arrogance to take root in our hearts it can cause them to grow hard and cold cutting us off from God and all his promises. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart Ephesians 4:18. For we can’t have hard hearts and remain in faith it begins to cause unbelief to rise up in us. Even Jesus address this with the disciples in Mark¹⁷ And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened?¹⁸ Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? Mark 8:17-18

This is such a broad topic it’s hard to cover in just one blog, but I encourage you today to look inside and examine your heart and motives as well as your interactions with others. Don’t let this day and all that is transpiring in it make your heart hard. Ask God to take out the disappointments, take out the pain, and ask God to help your heart remain tender in this hour.  Ask him to give you compassion and love for the people around you. He will not disappoint.

Just a great worship song I thought might bless you this week in your quiet time.