This past week, I've had to maneuver through the stickiest people situations. Co-workers, friends, customers, family, people at church.
I've been bombarded by events where I'm realizing I just don't have what it takes to love all on my own. I have desired, so many times, to be crabby or to comment on other people's behavior with hurtful words or snarky comments.
I think I've controlled myself in most situations, I think. At least physically, on the outside.
This line from somewhere in my growing up years keeps popping up in my head though,
Watch your thoughts, they become words; watch your words, they become actions.
I read 1 Corinthians 13, and find that loves shows itself in the following ways,
Love
- is patient
- is kind
- is without envy
- is humble
- is not prideful
- is not rude
- is not self-seeking
- cannot be provoked
- does not think about evil
- doesn't rejoice in sin, rather it rejoices in truth
- bears, believes, hopes & endures all things
In Proverbs we read over and over again about guarding our hearts. The wellspring of life flows out of our hearts. Love flows out of our hearts,but it can't if it's not first filled with God's love.
God's love has to first pour into us, if we want to pour it out into others. 1 John 4:19 says, We love because He first loved us...
I don't have the strength to love others on my own. God has been not so subtly nudging me today. The reason I'm finding it hard to love is because I'm not sitting in His love and in His presence as much as I should.
New challenge for myself: carve out larger chunks of time to spend with God. I invest and set aside time to build my relationships with others, why is it so hard to invest in what should be the most important relationship in my life?
And I need to spend actual relationship time with God, not just study or reading for the sake of knowledge, I was convicted of this in my Bible reading this afternoon.
1 Corinthians 8 opens with these words:
We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.
The word edify means to "instruct or benefit, especially morally or spiritually"
I feel like knowledge should edify us, and I feel that I have been taught this mindset my whole life, but I find instead, that love is what edifies us. Love is our instruction. Love is what benefits.
I want to live right, and I want to love right. As hard as it is to come out with the actions at times, I believe that God's greatest commands hinge on the basis of love.
If so, commit with me to spending more time in God's presence, so that He can show us how to love EVERYONE around us...
