What is Love? GUMY SUMMER CHALLENGE Clue # 3 (Answer #2)

 

 

 

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.

1 Corinthians 13:3

 

 

 

What is love?

 

Paul wrote that love is patient and kind.

It doesn't boast and it isn't rude.

He wrote that it always protects and keeps going - never stops.

He wrote that love doesn't fail.

 

Paul's description of love reads like something inhuman - supernatural.

And it is.

 

To truly love someone - to embody love - means to give up your own wants for another.

Love means seeing someone for who God intends them to be not for who they are to the world.

Love is an emotion that is bigger than this world because it is the only emotion that fully describes God.

 

God created man to be in relationship with Him.

Yes, God loves all of creation, but He created man above the rest of creation because He loves man - you and me - most of all.

 

His love for us is pure.

It reflects all of the facets of the love Paul describes in his first letter to the church at Corinth.

 

And, because we were created to be in relationship with Him, He has given us the capacity to love like Him - at least in glimpses and snippets - in this life.

 

We are imperfect beings who strive toward perfection.

Perfection is loving all others with a pure, unselfish heart.

Loving like God loves each of us.

 

At the end of chapter 13 Paul writes:

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.

 

Our experiences with loving others -

 boyfriend or girlfriend, mother or father, friend, sibling -

are limited to our understanding of the things of this world.

The love we know today is clouded by limits -

 the pain, hatred, selfishness, deviousness -

that this world embraces.

 

We are promised that the glorious glimpses of love we have in this world are mere shadows  - smudgy images - of the love that God has for us. The love He is showering upon each of us even at this moment.

 

Our hearts are wounded and untrusting so we choose to not fully experience all of the love God has for us.

 

But we - each of us - have the opportunity to embrace more and more of this overwhelming love each day by opening ourselves up to our great Beloved.

 

God is reaching out with His love.

His love is a constant waterfall of joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control, and faith for you. It is filled with innumerable blessings just for you.

 

But love is a funny thing - it only grows as it is returned and shared.

 

The more you give God's love back to Him the greater portion you shall receive.

 

And you can start getting more love today - just tell Him....

 

Tell Him you love Him.

 

He loves you.

 

Return His love with love of your own.

 

The more you tell Him - the more you will understand how great His love is for you.

 

What is love?

 

Love is knowing - heart, mind, body and soul - your Great Beloved is in love with you.

 

Scripture

1 Corinthians 13

Quote

There is no surprise more magical than the surprise of being loved. It is God's finger on man's shoulder.
Charles Morgan

The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.
Mother Teresa

 

 

GUMY Summer Challenge -Clue #3

Clue #3 - - Lauren Hill Song....what is the title? That is the answer...but listen to the whole song anyway :)

 

SUMMER CHALLENGE: Answer #2:

 

"We are, We are"...UNSTOPPABLE

 

Keep playing .....XOXO

 

...And We Wait - 1 Cor 13 & Psalm 40

I waited patiently for the Lord;
    he turned to me and heard my cry.

Psalm 40:1

Love is patient, love is kind.

1 Corinthians 13:4

Patience.

Everybody wants it - but very few have it.

The virtue of patience by definition is: the ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay; quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; diligence.

 I don't know about you - but I certainly wouldn't describe myself as someone with the ability to "suppress annoyance when confronted with delay". 

I can be rather easily annoyed when things don't fall exactly as I expect them to fall. 

I often will press forward even when all signs are pointing to me to delay or wait. 

I am a "doer". I am not a "wait-around-and-see-er". And my patience - my ability to suppress my annoyance - generally comes out like a two-year-old waiting for a promised toy - kind of whiny and loud.   

But what we see in today's two passages is that God wants us to display patience.

 Patience is equated to love and being godly.

Patience is being ready for the Lord - but not demanding anything of Him.

Patience is knowing that the Lord will fulfill His promises - but in His time.

All of this sounds wonderful - until you have to be patient and wait for God to move.

When we are in the middle of a struggle - even when it is a good struggle toward a completed class, a new athletic accomplishment, a new job or some other fantastic new opportunity - we often want God to shove us through the struggle so that we can get to the "good stuff".

We don't like having to take the necessary steps or waiting the appropriate amount of time to receive the gift of His blessing. We want to move and to move immediately.

But God requires us to wait - to be patient - because in being patient we are displaying the trust and faith we have in Our Heavenly Father.

Our ability to be patient - even in the most mundane and most trying of circumstances -  demonstrates our willingness to put our lives in the hands of the Creator. 

Paul wrote that love is patient - not because we need to wait for love but because love in its purest form is filled with faith and trust. Faith and trust are the foundation of our ability to display patience even in the worst of days.

Let's try together to be patient and wait upon the Lord. We just might be surprised by the wonderful  blessing He has for us - one we may have missed if we pressed through or tried to do it our own ways. 

Be patient. Wait upon the Lord.

It's not easy - but it is totally worth it.

Psalm 40 

1 Corinthians 13

Quote

Patience is the companion of wisdom.  

St. Augustine

Question

What are you waiting for that is requiring an extra helping of patience?