Am I In Love?
First Corinthians Chapter 13
Love is patient,
love is kind.
It does not envy,
it does not boast,
it is not proud.
It is not rude,
it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth
It always protects,
always trusts,
always hopes,
always perseveres.
Love never fails.
Sometimes in life we find ourselves dealing with situations that are beyond our limits. We all deal with people that we think should behave a certain way. We as a society have our rules and we try to force everyone around us to mold into the likeness of the group.
Lately the Lord has been directing people into my path who are sometimes troublesome. After seeing this pattern for a few days my slow thinking finally realized that God was trying to teach me some things. Finally He just came right out and spoke to me and said “My son, you need to let your head go dead and restart your heart.”
Suddenly it dawned on me that I was dealing with these people from my head and not my heart. He told me to go to the scriptures and read these verses that I listed above. That’s when I realized I had some repenting and apologizing to do.
I realized that even though I wanted the best for the people that I was dealing with I was doing it for the wrong reasons. The bible tells us to speak the truth in love. It doesn't just tell us to speak the truth. The truth spoken in anger doesn't contain the power to heal like the truth spoken in love.
Trying to force the truth on someone does no good at all. Besides maybe we are looking at a person’s faults on the outside and never know what they are facing in their hearts. God changes people from the inside out. We should do the same. In every situation where we are counseling or teaching others we should ask ourselves the following questions:
Am I being patient? Am I being kind? Am I being envious? Am I being boastful? Am I being proud? Am I being rude? Am I being self-seeking? Am I doing this in anger? Am I keeping record of their past failures and is that affecting my actions toward them? Am I delighting in their failures or rejoicing in the truth? Am I protecting, hoping and trusting? Am I willing to persevere until love gives them the victory?
After replaying some events in my heart I realized that I don’t always live what I believe. Though I have God’s love and mercy living inside me I don’t always choose to dispense the same grace to others that He has given to me. For this I publicly repent and to anyone in my past whom I may have injured with word or deeds I do sincerely apologize and ask forgiveness.
I purposely left the last part of the scripture above for my last point. Love Never Fails! If we fail it’s because we didn't walk in the love that God has given us. If we continue to love people the way the scriptures say in this chapter then sooner or later we will win. We only lose when we quit loving.
I hope you are encourage by these words.
Until next time,
Grow Rich in His Grace,
I love you All,
michael
