Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 (New King James Version)
This month we celebrate Valentine’s Day and It is appropriate to take joy in expressing our Love to wives, husbands, parents, children and grandchildren, boyfriends, girlfriends, relatives and very close friends. It is easy and natural to do, after all, it’s Valentine’s month.
God’s definition of Love includes loving not only those close to us, but with a review of the verses above, it is evident that for Believers to truly love the way the Apostle Paul describes and that Jesus practiced throughout his lifetime, it can sometimes be difficult for us. Loving the way God says we should in Scripture must be how we approach many situations in our lives.
We should live in a way that consistently reflects God’s love and our love for those that we come into contact with, particularly non-believers. Think about it; situations arise in all aspects of our lives – work, home, family, school, friends, and church, which often require us to pause and think about how to respond to a person or a situation. In some of these instances, it may be difficult for us to act or reply in a Jesus loving manner. We let our pride, bias, temper, or selfish nature take over and dictate our reaction that can be “knee jerk” and often times produces an unfavorable outcome, actually creating a worse situation.
To Love as God wants us to is just not always easy.
Give it some thought; is there a situation that you were confronted with recently that you now wish you could revisit as far as how you handled it from God’s Love perspective?
Let’s use this month of Love to open our hearts and our minds to the Scripture and to follow Jesus’s directives in our daily living and Loving.
