Gtcotr/ss012322
So much has been written about love and yet I still find it difficult to define in some strict sense. Love can be described from various standpoints and experienced in different ways. Love does not always mean getting what you want. It’s hard to separate love from the wisdom it often demands. Love drives both God and man to pursue and protect what they value most.
I
believe love is the most powerful force in the universe.
·
Sometimes
love makes us happy
·
Sometimes
love makes us sad
·
Sometimes
love challenges us to go along
·
Sometimes
love demands we stand apart
·
Love
can join and love can separate
·
Love
can say yes, and love can say no
·
Love
does what is best even when it will be misunderstood
·
Sometimes
it is easy to love
·
Sometimes
it is hard to love
·
Love
can blind us
·
Love
can open our eyes
·
Sometimes
love is returned and at other times despised
·
Love
motivates both God and man
·
Love
drives us to pursue and protect what we value most
·
Love
is a choice
·
Love
is always the right choice – Always the best choice
·
Love
is the measure of God in the person who chooses love
·
Love
never fails
· And Love is work
1 Corinthians 13 NKJV – The Love Chapter
1 ¶ Though I speak with the
tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass
or a clanging cymbal.
2 And though I have the
gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and
though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I
am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my
goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have
not love, it profits me nothing.
4 ¶ Love suffers long and
is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
5 does not behave rudely,
does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
6 does not rejoice in
iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
7 bears all things, believes
all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 ¶ Love never fails …
13 And now abide faith, hope,
love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 14
1 ¶ Pursue love …
God
is love (1 John 4:8&16) … but … love is not God.
·
Do
not love sleep (Proverbs 20:13)
·
Do
not love money (1 Timothy 6:10)
· Do not love the world (1 John 2:15)
1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
We
are given so many pictures of the right kind of love from God’s Word:
·
Love
the Lord your God with all your heart (Mark 12:30)
·
Love
you neighbor as you do yourself (Mark 12:31)
·
Love
your enemies (Matthew 5:44)
·
Speak
the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15)
·
Faith
works by love (Galatians 5:6)
·
Jesus
was moved by love to heal people (Matthew 14:14)
· Greater love has no man than his, that a man would lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13)
We love God because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19)
God’s love for us will not save us … our love for God will.
God’s love makes salvation available. God so loved He gave … (John 3:16)
Love, true love, God’s love, your love, can only be measured by giving. Lust is taking. Love is giving your best to and for others, even when your best may not be appreciated by others. Love drives us to pursue and protect what we value most.
Your
eternal covenant relationship with God is conditional and based on a:
· Love offered and Love accepted basis.
How can you accept the love offered to you by God?
·
It
will be a choice and it will not be as hard as you have imagined.
·
Drop
your defenses … take a deep breath … open your mind and let the Spirit of God
confirm His Word by giving you His peace right now.
·
Thank
God for loving you.
·
Ask
Him to forgive you.
·
Invite
Jesus into your heart.
·
Accept
God’s love and watch Him begin to change your life little by little every day.
