Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up. It never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
(I Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT)
What is the greatest commandment? Loving God with everything we have, and then others as ourselves. Now I have to admit, I struggle with the second part of His commandment at times; it’s so easy to love people when they are loveable, but not so easy when they’re not. Face it; some people just make it difficult to love them at all times! However, I know that I am accountable for my attitude and actions toward them, and I know I have to focus on the value of each individual as seen through the eyes of God. When God tells us that love is patient and kind, He means that we can’t become irritable when others fail to our expectations; He means that we are to look for the best in them and build them up instead of tearing them down. When we love the unlovable, we are demonstrating God’s type of love, because love comes from God.
“You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important; love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)
Love is exhibited by our acts of tolerance and not easily offended. Love cares more about others than it does for ourselves! It’s so important to try and understand other people by placing ourselves in each other’s shoes. While loving others is not always that easy, we don’t have to do it alone , we can follow Christ’s example and rely on the grace of God to support our journey! John Burke wrote "Jesus made it clear that what matters most to God, second only to staying in loving connection to Him, is how we love people.” We exhibit love to one another by remembering that God first loved us. We should concentrate on all we can do to show our love for God and others. One of my favorite worship songs is “One Thing Remains” because of the powerful message that His love never fails, never gives up, and never runs out on me! His love is stronger than anything or any circumstance, and He just won’t let us go! We were created to do two things on earth; learn to love God and learn to love all people, and once we are secure in His love for us, we can be more forgiving, understanding and patient with even the hardest of those to love.
“We love because He first loved us” (I John 4:19)
Linking up with Debbie today at Heart Choices!
Hi Denise - amen, God's love is amazing and complete. To love others like that is a great challenge and blessing. Great post Denise
ReplyDeleteGod bless friend
Tracy
I was so excited to see you link up and participate in "In Other Words Tuesday". I found myself nodding in agreement throughout your post. Jesus teaches us how to love. I can say without a doubt that without abiding in Him, it can be very challenging to love the unlovable. And it's often those people who need love the most.
ReplyDeleteBlessings and love,
Debbie
God never promises us that it will be easy. Rats! We are called to love the loveable and the unloveable. Praise the Lord He loves the loveable and unloveable as well. It's His example we should be following not our own.
ReplyDeleteI love this verse when I got married me and my husband had this entire verse on love on our invitations on the cake and bulletin. And we had it in our vows we stood before the people and the pastor and asked God to show us how to love one another like He does. To be entrusted with a child of God as your spouse is an honor and I surely did not want to do it on my way of love because you know sis we as humans love differently than God and I wanted to please the Lord.
ReplyDeleteDenise, what a wonderful post on Valentine's Day....all about God's love and His desire for us to love others as He has loved us. He's called us to love so He will give us the power to be victorious. What a mighty God we serve....
ReplyDeleteBeloved let us love one another... Wonderful insight on beautiful scriptures. Have a blessed day!
ReplyDeleteLove is foundational. I Corinthians 13 has always challenged me. It's impossible to love like that without God's help. It goes against our selfish nature.
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ReplyDeleteThe greatest expression of love is seen in Jesus. If we were to replace every 'love' word with the name of Jesus, it fits so perfectly. Thankful that Jesus has set a great example for me to walk in love with Him and others :)
ReplyDeleteLove your blog! And hope you can follow mine too: Christ is livin'
Amen. May we always seek to love others with His love!
ReplyDeleteThis is a wonderful post. Love....If we have love for the Lord, a deep joyful and profound love for Him, all else falls into place. For, who can truly love the Lord and hate others? If we continuously strive to nurture His first commandment, we will grow more tolerant and unselfish. Each and every day, I strive to grow closer to my Savior and walk in the path He has placed before me. It's not easy, but it is so rewarding, within and without.... Just a little bit closer to Him each day, letting in more of Him and less of me. Many blessings and thanks for stopping by my blog.~Cynthia
ReplyDeleteI'm a first time visitor and I really loved what you said here. Isn't it interesting that when we don't trust Him completely in our circumstances, that we still have to get back to that point of faith. You would thing we would learn more quickly! :)
ReplyDeleteGood thoughts and I agree thoroughly!
Blessings.