Between weddings, confirmations, dedications, baptisms, and countless other commemorations, I have heard and read the famous love passage from 1 Corinthians 13 more than several times. But today, during my Bible study, the Holy Spirit pierced my heart in a way that I did not expect. To be honest, the Holy Scripture rocked my world and brought me to tears with its profound honesty and convicting definition. Pray that God might give us new eyes to see His Word today.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7:
"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist in its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
Now think of that in lieu of Paul's previous admonition prefacing this passage stating that no matter what we may have or do, if we have not love, then we have nothing.
My prayer is that you would grant me a bit of vulnerability in this as I get honest in engaging with God's Word for just a moment.
I claim Christ. I have given my life to Christ Jesus in faith and have been blessed with grace beyond measure and joy beyond comprehension. I belong to Him and have be blessed with an insatiable passion for His Word. I want so badly to serve Him, to be a good witness towards His name, and to be obedient to what He has commanded. This is the very core of who I am.
All that being said, when I read 1 Cor. 13 today, the Lord stirred in my heart a conviction, not a condemnation, but an awareness like I had never known. The brass tax is that, in reading 1 Cor. 13, I realized that I have failed or neglected every single one of those love definitions. I have been impatient, unkind, envious, boastful, arrogant, rude, self-serving, irritable, resentful, rejoicing in wrongdoing, and foolish in ignorance. How could one as wretched as myself fit that bill of what love is supposed to be?
About the moment that the question hit me, I was floored by the Holy Spirit when He spoke into my heart, "My child, you cannot love how I have loved you unless you love me fully, recklessly, and without reservation. But child, I have loved you in your sin and disobedience so that you would know the extent of my love."
Floored and struggling to hold back tears, I felt so honored that God would love me. He loved and loves us so much that He condescended (in the most positive sense) to human form and suffered an atrocious death to save all humanity and restore a broken relationship so that now, by faith, we can know love as it is, not just what we feel or how the world defines it. But love. Real, actual, transformational love. Normally, I would end this blog with some sort of exhortation, but for today all I can say boils down to three simple words:
Thank You, Lord.
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