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Loving Well: When It’s Easy and When It’s Not. It’s All That Matters

1 Cor.13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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 do not have love, I am nothing. 3 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.

Heavenly Father, our need for this portion of your Word is as daily as oxygen and water. No matter whatever else we are or do, give or accomplish, without a heart of love, we’re zeros, zilch, nada, empty, nothing. And never let us forget, this is how you love us in Jesus.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 

By the power of the gospel, supersize our patience with challenging people and disruptive circumstances. Replace our irritation and defensiveness with your kindness and peace. Grant us contentment in Christ, so we’ll envy less, whine less, and grow in genuine humility. Free us to be the quickest repenters in our families, workplace, and friendships.

5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

     May we be merciful like you, Father. Help us overlook other people’s foibles and failures—not because we’re indifferent, but because we’re in Christ. Give us thick skin and big hearts, and show us how to steward our anger. Lord, we’d love a photographic memory when it comes to the gospel and grace, but amnesia when it comes to the ways people hurt and fail us.

6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 

Father, may we delight in justice and beauty, but keep us free from every expression of vengeful hearts. We don’t want to get even, we want to get more of Jesus.

7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

     Show us how to protect those we love—emotionally, spiritually, and otherwise. Help us trust when trusting isn’t easy; hope, not based on what we see; and persevere, when we’d sooner give up. Father, thank you a gazillion times over: We’re not saved by how we love, but by how you love us in Jesus. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ kind and powerful name.

 

 

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