Just A Reminder Of Love…

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, 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. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:1‭-‬6‭, ‬8‭-‬13 NIV

Before I read my devotional today, the word love kept popping in my head, I then asked the Holy Spirit to show me and guide me in this message. Later that day I was with someone who displayed the complete opposite of what love is according to God, and as I read my devotional now and read 1 Corinthians 13, I was overwhelmed with emotions because there are so many moments in our lives where we miss the mark, we operate so easily and fluidly in negative emotions and we so boldly display them like they’re something to be proud of but when do we do that with love? It took me back to the person who has said they loved me and in their own way I guess I believe that they do but the tone, the words don’t display God’s description of love. Honestly, it makes me sad, but so clearly I see now that it’s just because we don’t intentionally practice it. So I dare you today to start walking, talking, listening, moving in love, boldly love those who mistreat you and let God’s love transform you.

Father, I come to you and I ask you to forgive me, if at any time I have stepped out of love into something that separates me from you, I ask you fill me with boldness and courage to love those who reject love and are hard to love. It is not by my strength but yours that I do all these things that make me the light of the world. For your glory always. In Jesus name Amen.