Thursday, February 11, 2016

The Season of Love

 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,  that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.  Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."                         ~ Jesus  (John 17: 20-23

The season of love, Valentine's Day, is upon us.  The candy and card companies and retail stores have been pushing their related merchandise since the day after Christmas in my neck of the woods.   And yet, it seems we get farther and farther from LOVE, what love truly is.   Why is it so difficult to love well day after day?   I know that I tend to get so caught up in my agenda, I fail to be what God tells me to be to my people, especially when they aren't on board with MY agenda.   

Bonnie Gray, in her latest blog post at faithbarista.com, Let Go of What You’re Holding Onto And Let Me Love You Today {Remember}spurred my thoughts to love and how inept I am in the love I give to those around me.   As usual, I was led to dwell in the word of God.  Her words reminded me of how weakly I love and how strongly God loves.  Nothing I say can compare to what He has said and continues to say about love.   So as a reminder for this Valentine's Day, I decided to share His instructions for loving well, our divine call.

  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.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
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.
I Corinthians 13

And now my friends, let's go love well!    

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