We have been talking about pursuing love in the last couple of devotionals. Today I want to go to a passage where Scripture gives us a snapshot of what God's love looks like. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8,
Love suffers long and is kind (a lot of people suffer long, but they are not very kind while they do it); love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own; is not provoked (it is not touchy or fretful or resentful); thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
What you just read about the love of God is already inside of you if you are a Christian. It is not something outside of you that you need to seek. It is something that is in you that needs to be released.
Romans 5:5 tells us,
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
God's love has already been poured into your heart! The ability to do everything in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 is already in you. You have the ability to not be touchy, or fretful, or resentful, or seek your own or insist on your own rights; to suffer long and to be kind; to believe the best of every person.
The Bible is not talking about pursuing love as though it is something that is vacant from your life. Rather, you are to pursue the expression of that love purposely and let it work its way into your words and actions.
~Bayless Conley~
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