"Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance."
1 Cornithians 13:7
Most people believe that if they are SAVED, then life will be a bowl full of cherries.....but
Christ's own life here on earth was not without heartache, trials, suffering.....
What stood out to me today in my devotional time was this.....
When I looked up the definition of ENDURE, here is what I found:
1. : to undergo (as a hardship) especially without giving in : suffer
2 : to remain firm under suffering or misfortune without yielding
You notice the same thing I did.................... suffering?
I can tell you from all my relationships, that LOVE is not without suffering. You can not love and not feel pain, hurt, loss, disappointment..... It just isn't possible.
When HALLMARK began writing LOVE cards.... I bet they never thought about the meaning behind the words written by the Apostle Paul... "endure".....
Love, we are told in the main stream media, is easy, fun, sexy, and enjoyable. I don't remember LOVE being portrayed as suffering. Do you?
Not that LOVE is not without priceless times of pure JOY! But, real love, true love, can take hit after hit and always comes back "giving" more than taking.
REAL LOVE..... Love that flows through you only through a personal relationship with Christ our Saviour, is filled with the fullness of love for our Heavenly Father....
"When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. In so far as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased." C. S. Lewis
Love is God. Love comes from God. Love is an action that put us in direct obedience to God.
WOW.... I have a long ways to go to be PERFECT in love, but oh how I am trying. I believe God sees our efforts to endure anything that comes our way. Think of the life Christ....
He died for us, while we were yet sinners............ now, that is LOVE.
Not that LOVE is not without priceless times of pure JOY! But, real love, true love, can take hit after hit and always comes back "giving" more than taking.
REAL LOVE..... Love that flows through you only through a personal relationship with Christ our Saviour, is filled with the fullness of love for our Heavenly Father....
"When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. In so far as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased." C. S. Lewis
Love is God. Love comes from God. Love is an action that put us in direct obedience to God.
"Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails...But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love."
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
WOW.... I have a long ways to go to be PERFECT in love, but oh how I am trying. I believe God sees our efforts to endure anything that comes our way. Think of the life Christ....
He died for us, while we were yet sinners............ now, that is LOVE.
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