Love Perseveres

DAY #3

Love Perseveres

“Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”

I Corinthians 13:7

When troubles and fiery trials come our way, Peter and James tell us to be truly glad – that it is an opportunity for great and wonderful joy! (1 Peter 1:6-7, James 1:2-4, 1 Peter 4:12-13) Why?  That sounds foolish to most of us.  But when our faith is tested, our endurance has a chance to grow and when our endurance is fully developed, we will be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing! 

Our faith and hope support our love by enabling us to endure through every difficult circumstance.  Oswald Chambers writes,

 “Perseverance is more than endurance.  It is endurance combined with absolute certainty that what we are looking for is going to happen.  Perseverance means more than just hanging on, which may be only exposing our fear of letting go and falling….Then there is the call to spiritual perseverance.  A call not to hang on and do nothing, but to work deliberately, knowing with certainty that God will never be defeated….”

How do we continue to show kindness to those who are unlovable or continue to pray for a loved one for months or years when we see no change?  We don’t try harder.  We pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to increase our faith, to put His hope in us, and to overflow with His love.  We are incapable on our own to love the unlovable for an extended period of time, but filled with the Holy Spirit we are capable of the genuine love of Christ in any and every circumstance.  We can do all things through Him who gives us strength! 

Because we have faith that God knows, plans and directs our lives for the good, that He who suffered and died for us will not abandon us, but carry us through, that God does indeed answer prayer, that our future is secure with Him, that He fulfills all His promises and that He loves us to the uttermost.  And because we put our hope in this living, all-powerful, unchanging, loving God, then we are able to not only endure but persevere – loving and working “deliberately, knowing with certainty that God will never be defeated”.

Questions for Reflection

Can you think of some circumstances where your love was tested and greatly strengthened by difficulty?  

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Why is perseverance such an important element of love?  The word is used only here, but in the term patience (v. 3) and the extended teaching regarding the permanence of love (vs. 8-13) we see that the fact that love endures and lasts and sticks-to-it is one of the distinguishing marks of higher love.  Why? 

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Where is the perseverance of your love being tested right now?

Write out a prayer to God about this.

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