This afternoon I am meditating on 1 Corinthians 13. It is so familiar I forget the richness in Paul's words sometimes.
Today as I think on these words I am reminded of my love for my
children. This is the way God has expressed we are to love one another.
Although there are times we don't "feel" like loving in this way, we
must walk in Truth and obedience to His Word.However, not so long ago
God revealed this passage to me in a very different way. Here's what
happened:
I remember sitting in my dining room staring at
a painting on my wall I had created using these verses. The Spirit
began to nudge, I heard the question, "Is this how you love Me?" I had
not considered the possibility that not only are we to love others in
this way, our reciprocated love for God should take on this image as
well. Over the next few days I asked myself, "What does it mean to love
God patiently?" My response: It involves waiting faithfully on His
timing, in spite of the circumstances and those things which appear to
be an inconvenience or frustration. Each phrase held a new question and a
new set of thoughts, a new set of truths.
I will never forget
the most profound of all questions coming from this experience. "Do you
keep a record of My "wrongs"?" What a silly question. God does nothing
wrong. And then it hit me - there are things I legitimately believed in
my heart He had done wrong. These things fell into a list of "if
only's". If only you hadn't let me get raped...If only you hadn't let my
grandmother die... if only you had given me a safer place to live...
and the list goes on. The Truth: GOD IS SOVEREIGN. HE DOES NOTHING
WRONG. Who am I to hold on to this list? So I let it go. Will you let it
go? Do you hold a list of "if only's" attached to God's name, or your
love for Him? Consider these verses today. Look at them from a fresh
perspective.
And, if you have kiddos let me ask you this, how has
God taught you to love them in these specific ways? How has He reminded
you to be patient, or to keep no record of wrongs?
Many reading
this do not have children but are still surrounded by those we are
called to love. So, in what ways is God teaching you to love others?
1 Corinthians 13 has been challenging for me today. I hope it's Truth
you find as rich as I have. Let me share it with you. If you can read it
as though it were the first time, I challenge you to do so.
1 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. 2 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. 3 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. 4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous ; love does
not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly ; it does not
seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong
suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the
truth ; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,
endures all things. 8 Love never fails ; but if there are gifts of
prophecy, they will be done away ; if there are tongues, they will cease
; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part
and we prophesy in part ; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial
will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child,
think like a child, reason like a child ; when I became a man, I did
away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then
face to face ; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I
also have been fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these
three ; but the greatest of these is love.
