Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Over the past few days what has been the greatest expression of selfless love that you have personally experienced? Pause and think about that for a few seconds. Listen to this profound statement made 2000 years ago, but oh my it is so very relevant today: “If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but I have no love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but I have no love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but I have no love, I am nothing.”
Wow, now that is very profound, isn’t it? Do you know who said it? The apostle Paul wrote it in chapter 13 of his first letter to his Christian friends in the great city of Corinth in about the year 56ad! (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)
So, who are some of the people you know whose lives overflow with love? Do you find yourself attracted to those people, wanting to spend time with them just because you feel so much better when you are around them? As you get to know these loving people, what is the source of their love? Paul covers a wide range of types of people who can be very beneficial to society, but what is the difference of their impact on society if they are loveless or overflowing with love?
Seems the Holy Spirit knew Paul’s words would stir up all kinds of deep reflection and so the Spirit led Paul to continue with this remarkable description of God honoring LOVE: “Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. Love is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” (1 Cor. 12:4-7)
Now this is such a powerful statement, with such far reaching potential for every human being, every marriage, every family… we’ll take several days asking the Holy Spirit to help us understand it, apply it to our lives and live it consistently!
First, here’s a profound thought for us to ponder: Every married couple I’ve ever met who is contemplating separation or divorce can find the root of their problems in these words of Paul we just read! So, let’s dig in…
“Love is PATIENT…” Ok my friends, so how do you measure patience? In someone else and in yourself? What is the evidence of a person who has the Patience of God alive and consistent in their life? Would you agree God has the ultimate patience when you consider how our human race has responded to God over the centuries?
In fact, here’s a powerful statement from God about His patience: “The LORD is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. God is PATIENT with us, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) Quite often I hear people say God should simply pour out His great judgment on the wickedness in our world, but this verse explains WHY God doesn’t!
So, what about your patience and mine, my friends? Patience with ourselves, patience with those we love, patience with leaders who disappoint us, patience with bureaucracy, patience with those who from our perspective are not doing their jobs or at least not doing them well. And what about patience with our spouse, our children, our aging parents?
One of the evidences that the Holy Spirit is doing a transforming, refining work in your character and mine is our growing patience. Impatience reflects an absence of the Spirit of God in our lives because the more the Holy Spirit is influencing how we think, speak and act, the more our lives will be like Jesus and Jesus was incredibly patient wasn’t He? So, our love for God is seen in our patience with people realizing they are just like you and me and they need God’s transforming work in their lives too!
Impatience says I think I’m more important than you; I think I’m better than you; I think I deserve more than what I am receiving from you. Impatience says I am not satisfied with what God is doing in this situation. Now let’s pause and ponder: What does our lack of patience tell the world about your relationship and mine with God?
Would you join me in considering this question: Who are the people or situations in which I find my patience running low? WHY? What is it about these people or those situations which try my patience and cause me to become impatient? What is normally my attitude when I become impatient with a person or a situation? What does that attitude tell those people about my character and my relationship with God?
Now in closing today my friends, let me ask us to consider this: How do you and I BUILD our patience? I am assuming that both you and I would like our patience to become more and more mature and a magnificent evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, right? Here’s a powerful God truth that might help us build patience both with ourselves and with others: “I am confident of this, that God who began a good work in you (and me) will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)
Do you see the confidence of a progressive work of improvement which God is doing in His people, individually? That’s Sanctification! That’s encouraging, isn’t it? God does not give up on us! We are a work in progress and God is doing the work in us which continually refines us more and more into Christ likeness. But it also calls us to consider what is IMPEDING that wonderful, refining work of God in us, right? Seems to me it would be foolish to disregard those things which undermine the work of God in us.
Here’s another powerful statement from God that might help us with this: “Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything than hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race of life marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Hebrews 12:1-3)
Oh my, that is so powerful, isn’t it? In fact, I’m going to ask you to read it a second and maybe a third time, inviting the Holy Spirit to penetrate our hearts with the words, especially as it relates to how your patience and mine reflects to all those watching us, the work of God in our lives.
LOVE is PATIENT… let’s pause and ponder our patience. What have we learned about patience from Jesus? How does our patience reflect our relationship with Jesus? Here’s a special song to help us consider LOVE in Patience.
Today’s Scripture is 1 Cor. 13:1-5.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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