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
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
SUMMER CHALLENGE: Answer #2:
"We are, We are"...UNSTOPPABLE
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