Day 3
THE PRE-EMINENCE OF LOVE
Do we hear so much about love that we grow
hardened, or spiritually deaf, at the mention of
love?
I’d like to ask you to try something that
I’ve tried (and with some fairly amazing results). Read I Corinthians 13: 1, 2 & 3. Read the verses repeatedly, slowly,
deliberately, thoughtfully. Don’t allow
your mind to wander; savor each phrase. (Hint: to understand the New Testament
concept of “prophecy”, look at I Cor.
14:3; doesn’t it sound like preaching??)
Before you start reading these verses, ask
the Holy Spirit to counsel you, to open up whatever the Lord wants to reveal to you.
After reading these three short verses, I
find it both stunning and sobering to be told – bluntly – that achievements
which would ordinarily be considered the highlight of a life of effective
Christian service, mean NOTHING unless they are motivated by love. Our marching orders are clear: whenever we
undertake to do something, love must pre-dominate.
Now for the hard part: the Apostle Paul
isn’t just talking about showing love when we’re in church….is he? Scripture is pretty plain that love is to be
behind everything we think, say and do, or we’re wasting our time and effort, in God’s eyes.
The concept of love encompasses: God’s
love for us; our love for God; our love for others (brothers and sisters in
Christ); and our love for the lost. See
the Vision section from the VIM triangle at the
end of this devotional. Upward Training
will help us put God’s love into action in our lives. Please note that the classes of love listed
at the beginning of this paragraph are not truly categories; they are inescapable aspects of a Christian
life. You cannot choose to allow two and
ignore the other two, because in fact the lines between them blur. What does not blur is the fact that God’s
love should permeate all we think, all we say, all we do. We truly need to be “all in” when it comes to love.
Look for the focus of every sermon, the focus
of every devotional to tie in with love.
Embrace God’s love as it also becomes the focus of your life each
day. While it’s not likely that all I
think, all I say, all I do, every day of every week, is going to focus on God’s
love, I can do better than I am doing now.
How about you? With God’s help,
we can close the gap between where we are and where the Lord wants us to be.
It beats gaining nothing.
We love because He first loved
us. I John 4:19
In what ways has your thinking about
love grown so far this week?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Prayer: Reflecting specifically on this
devotional, write out a prayer to God.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment