Love is... Part 11

Photo From "View from wits end" (Credit in the corner)

Love Never Fails... 




The biggest part of love is that it does not fail, ever! The true, pure form of love never ends or fails. It's always there, and does not lose its potency. This hits home the most for me when I relate to the fact that God is love. God will never fail you. 


"The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: 'I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness."
(Jeremiah 31:3)


This is one of my favorite verses, it defines who I am and my identity. "Everlasting Love" is a powerful phrase. It means that it is always at its full strength, it never began with something you did, and it will never end no matter what you do. It is infinite and it never fails. But the part that is convicting is that we are to love people in that way as well. To not have conditional love, where it started with them being good and ends with their mistake.


The most encouraging thing that I can think is that God is "Everlasting Love". Whenever I "mess up", "miss the mark", "sin", or "fall short", I become overwhelmed with guilt. Conviction that leads to repentance is a wonderful thing, but after you have repented guilt is purely from the Devil. When you feel guilty you run away from God, you are like the prodigal son who feels as if he cannot be his father's son again because he is so lowly. But God is that father who clothes his son and places a ring on his finger, he rejoices that his son came back, repented for what he did, and even though he is dirty he cleans him off and holds a feast.
This is Everlasting love. God sees every mistake you will make before and after you are "saved", and He still died for you. He knows that you will sin that day, but he still loves you. In will never end and it never started with a "good deed".


This is the type of love that never fails that we are expected to have as well. Not judging a person on their past, and to not lower our value or love for a person when they do something that hurts or disappoints us. You do not value a person on how they act or treat you, but you value them because the are a person.


The part after "love never fails" talks about how all the gifts people want to have will come to an end eventually, that they can all fail. But to be gifted with Love for others, that will never fail or go wrong.
I feel that most churches either push for gifts, or they will deny them completely. But the issue is that we want people to have prophecy, or the gift of tongues, and not the gift of love. The greatest gift of all the ones listed is love, it is the one that will not fail.


Instead of praying for tongues, maybe you should be praying harder for the gift of love. To grow in this area many hardships may come up to help your "love muscle" to grow.


I wanted to make this one short. If you just dwell on the principle in the Bible, and take another look at the past 10 parts, you can learn more for yourself than I can write down in a few days. So let's grow in love together, and grow in our knowledge of God's love as well.


Refining the faith,
-C.A.M. 

Love is... Part 10

Photo Credit: cute-pictures.blogspot

Love is... Always protecting, trusting, hoping, and preserving. 




So, we recently got through Valentines Day, the day that people either think is wonderful or horrible. I don't really agree with the way love is put forward for this, where men are required to give expensive gifts to women to prove that they care for them. Yet, it is a great time to reflect on the true nature of pure love. I focused on dwelling on God's love, it's eternal, unselfish, and unblemished. There's one more part of the Love series after this one, so let's make this a good one! 




Someone who "always protects, always trusts, always hopes, (and) always preserves" sounds like the ideal person! This is the love of God, this is the love that Christ showed us, and this is the love that the Holy Spirit empowers us to be able to show to others. "Agape" is the love in which the one giving it has no conditions and no expectations from loving the other person. This is the word used in Greek when describing God's love. It is pure, not sexual or romantic, and is simply caring for someone, no matter what they do or don't do. This is the love you show to your Enemies, and everyone else, not expecting them to love you back but loving them anyways. It's because of God's Agape that we are able to love Him.
"We love, because He first loved us." (1 John 4:19)


Let's try to just go through each part of this section, one by one. 




"Always Protects" 


To "Always protect" reminds me of a service man or a knight. The Police, EMTs, and Fire Men are there to protect the general public. They put others lives before their own and work hard to keep us safe and alive. They stand by, waiting for us to call on them. They are pretty much the closest thing we have to a superhero, but instead of a "Bat Signal" we call 911. I realize that they are not perfect, we all make mistakes, but they are people who live the life of "Always protect". 
The other thing I think of is a Knight, like the ones from our Childhood books. They fought monsters, fire breathing dragons, and rescued the town and the princess. In the books for the older audience they will probably die fighting. While the people mourn and honor them, they do not care that they died if it was to save another, and the only regret is that they are no longer alive to protect them. Knights of our dream land are "chivalrous", and little boys want to be like them!


At least, they used to. Being blunt here, but this is not a value that we are taught anymore. To open doors, ward off bad guys, and come to the rescue of women is not as important. Little boys like the guns and swords, but a lot of them think that the bad guy is cool! Most start watching MTV at a young age and want to be the "Player' when they grow up. These are the people who wound those around them, emotionally and physically. Men were created stronger to protect women, yet this is being lost. Now, women can also be noble and protect! They protect family and friends. I think that getting the value of protecting others at any cost needs to come back into the trends. 


"Regular" people don't die in battle and fight fires to protect, and this applies to those who do as well. We protect the feelings of others, their emotions. To love and protect people can be interfering when someone is being bullied. When you see someone being hurt, or who is potentially going to get hurt, you jump in and help them and protect them. In "modern times" we are able to do this more than we know. So, let's take a stand and protect those around us. 




"Always Trusts"


This one sounds very difficult to me, and probably to most people. To always trust? God, don't you know how much I have been hurt? How can I possibly trust people? To trust a person is extremely difficult for those of us who has been "burned" in the past. Example? One of the first times I did a "trust fall" they thought it would be funny to drop me on purpose...Onto the hard, rocky ground. I don't like trust falls anymore. But I had to do one recently with my roommates, and although it was hard it taught me a lesson. 


They caught me. Despite what happen years ago, they still caught me. Because we loved each other, and we did not want to see one another fall. To really love a person you need to trust them. Being suspicious, judgmental, or just thinking that they will let you down and have some sort of fault, drives a wedge in any relationship. It's a delicate balance, I think, because you both need to trust people, but do not rely on them to be perfect for you. Knowing a person has faults, and also not distrusting them for those faults. You love through mistakes and know we all make them, but still trust them. 


I know this may all sound confusing, but it's hard to put feelings into words. You also need to be a trustworthy person yourself, someone who is not back-stabbing, or sneaky, or that hides things from people. Trust and be trustable. 




"Always Hopes"


To always hope, in my opinion, is to see the light in every situation. It''s the opposite of despair. You are hopeful for the future, you have hope that things will get better in the most dire of times, and you hope the best for others as well. Love is about showing it to others, but it is also something internal. You always trust people and you always have hope. To be a hopeful, uplifting person draws people to you. Being an optimist makes people around you positive as well. 


When a person is in despair and you can give them hope, that is showing love to them. You make them see that things will get better, you tell them you are praying for them and hope for the best, and you want things to go in their best interests. And, to have hope, you trust God and love Him and believe in the love He has for you. 




"Always Preserves"


We preserve rain forests, trees, animal life, and human lives. We protect them so that we can preserve them. It's keeping something safe so that it is able to grow. Like a nursery for plants, or children for that matter! It is a safe place where they can mature. We should be a safe place that people can go to when they need to heal and can stay when they are tender and growing. This is more of a Maternal or Paternal instinct, when your parents want to keep you safe for your own good so that you can become a responsible and stable adult. 


God, as our Father, shows this aspect, as well as all of them of course. He wants to nurture us and help us grow. We should be this way towards others. Protecting them from harm, and helping them grow. It's shows love and value for a person when you care for their well being and development. 




I think that these are very important for love, and we all have our own definition for the words. This is my opinion on what these mean, and I hope that it can get your mind going on what you think of these. Just remember that God has all of these traits, in their perfect, pure forms, and so does Christ and the Holy Spirit. And every time that The Bible says to love another person, it means all of these things. Love is a deep feeling, and I am excited to be able to wrap this up with next times final word on Love.


For now, let's dwell on these and continue to grow in Agape.  


Refining the Faith, 
-C.A.M.

Love is... Part 9

Photo Credit: "love is all"

Love is... Just (Does not delight in Evil, but rejoices with the Truth) 

You are in Ancient Rome. You can hear the cheering of the crowds in the Coliseum, you know that there must be something going on. It could be a fight between Gladiators, or it could be Christians being fed to the lions. People are cheering, not unlike the cheering at the Super Bowl, and are thrilled with the excitement that this "sport" brings. They watch people being slaughtered and within the first month of operation of this new arena the sand is stained red, thick and wet with blood. This is the price of entertainment. 

The time after Christ's resurrection was dark. People who claimed to be Christians were killed daily, hourly. Many were killed for "sport". Thrown in the Coliseum, while people cheered for their deaths. Children would watch their parents die before them, or a parent would watch their child be devoured before them. They were beaten, tortured, eaten, and killed. They were even doused with oil and lit to be human torches for dinner parties. 

Why should I go into these gruesome facts? This is our heritage, as Christians. 

People who were Evil and Corrupt needed better and better entertainment. They were not satisfied until they could see death all around them. It was fun, since it was not them. Watching people battle to the death was normal. It was also Evil, and they delighted in it. Corrupt people enjoy watching people fight and die, they enjoyed rape and prostitution, they enjoy drunkenness and lust. If you take every Sin against God, they enjoyed it. In Sodom and Gomorrah men surrounded the house of Lot, they demanded that the men (Messengers of The Lord) be brought out to them to satisfy their carnal lust. In the entire town the only righteous people we know of is the family of Lot. The others were Evil. 

When it comes down to what "Love" is, it is a choice and not an emotion. God is Love, and true love is aspects of God. Lot showed love by not protecting himself and sending out the men to be raped, he denied them and offered anything he could in return, in the end the Messengers pulled Lot into his home, and shut the door, preventing any harm to come to His family. (Genesis 19:1-29)

This may seem like a stretch but I want to make a point with this. Lot and his family lived in that town with all of the Evil people. At any time they could have joined in and also delighted in the things they did, but they did not because they were righteous. 

To love is to follow God's commandments. (2 John 1:6)

Things that are not of God are to repulse us, that is our Spirit. Our Flesh desires these things and will try to win and swat us, which if why Paul wrote, "I die daily". (1 Corinthians 15:31)
We are to reflect Christ, who never delighted in what was evil. 


To be "Just"is to "behave according to what is morally right or fair" (Google Dictionary Definition)
Christians and Jews find what is "right" or "moral" from the Bible, from the Word of God. Our standards are to be His standards. So lying, deceit, lust, murder, hate, adultery, fornication, false worship, etc. are things that are Evil and that we should not enjoy. Things to rejoice in would be like, salvation, love, truth, justice, peace, joy, purity, charity, and kindness. Things that the Lord loves to see, we should also love to see. 


To love is to never rejoice in the mistreatment of others. We should not laugh when people are bullied or hurt by others, or by ourselves. If it is in "real life" or on a show, we should never take pleasure in the hurt of others. Having a strong sense of justice is essential if you with the be Christ-like. This is one small part of this aspect of love, to hate mistreatment of others. 


Here is the other part, that may sting a bit more to say. 


"Loving" violent video games and movies... We should NEVER enjoy films like "Saw" or "Final Destination"! EVER! Because watching the torture of people, "fake" or "real", makes us no better than the people watching children being eaten by lions and cheering! Death is not a fun thing, murder is not funny, and torture is not something to be laughed at while you munch on popcorn. You may not be "physically" doing these things, but killing people for fun is not a good thing to do! 


I leave it up to your own conviction of what is the "limit" for Video Games and Movies. I pray we all listen to our conscience in this matter. 


Another thing that is Evil that many Christians "struggle" with is Pornography. The addiction and love of this entertainment is an Evil and False thing that we should despise and stay away from. Most people are exposed at a young age from curiosity, and many Christian artists have said that Porn was something they had to overcome. Is was a thing that they substituted for real, pure love... It is false, it is a lie, and it is evil. But it is also something you can overcome! There are many sources and churches today to help Christians overcome this because it is a growing problem every day, and I am in full support of them. The first step is swallowing pride and getting help, just as an addiction to drugs or alcohol. 


Cutting off the ties of Evil and Corrupted things is a difficult and painful process and can only be done with the help and Grace of God, and by Dying to our flesh daily. To be able to be a true representation of Love we need to cut off evil in our lives, and never approve of it when it is around us. Once you are no longer numb to it, you spot it more easily and stay far away from it. 


To Love is to rejoice in the things the Lord does, and to hate the things He does. Having high standards draws others with high standards towards you, and even people with low standards. They want to know what makes you different and why you do not like the things that "The World" does. You are showing love to them by not tolerating wrong behavior towards them and others, and towards yourself. And you are showing love by not allowing those things to be around you nor in your life.


I hope this made sense, and helped you realize a few things in your life. It did for me. 


Refining the Faith,
-C.A.M.

Love Is... Part 6

Love is... Not self seeking

So I am finding that 1 Corinthians love is all about laying yourself down and caring for others. All of the previous parts had something to do with it, so it seems that in case you did not catch all of what was written before or really got the meaning the writer decided to plainly say it, "Love does no seek it's own."

Our nature is self preservation, to seek for our own benefit. But the nature of the spirit is to care not for your self but for others. This is why we die to self, so that the spirit can prevail in our life. I admit that I am a selfish person, because we are all selfish. I try my best to not be prideful or selfish and I make mistakes all the time. And when I try to do it on my own, with my own strength, that is when I fail the most.

I see Jesus' whole life as an example to us. He showed us how to live, he showed us that through grace we can overcome sin even as a Man. Then he died, the ultimate act of love and sacrifice, and then rose from the dead through the Holy Spirit, which now dwells within us, and is interceding for us in Heaven! What He did was incredible, what he is still doing is incredible. So I know that I am able to overcome sin and temptation as well through the Trinity. I also know that you can as well.

I do not think that God would ever give a task that is impossible, because through Him all is possible. But with our own strength these things are impossible. So while is may seem that to be selfless and to not seek your own, in every circumstance, it is possible with the strength of The Lord. I write with the upmost faith that we can all, as the body of Christ, overcome this!

So how are we not self seeking? Our priorities are dead last, bottom of the food chain. What everyone else wants comes before us. Naturally we think that this is ridiculous, that would be human nature crying out. "How can I not care for myself? That is stupid, I have to put myself first sometimes!" While many people say this, that does not make it true. You put the charities, the poor, the widows, the wants and needs of everyones else, other peoples plans, and Gods priorities high above your own and when all of those are taken care of you will be taken care of. It seems miserable to be that person who just keeps giving, but is that not what Christ did? And are we not his followers? Disciples who want to be just like him in every way?

There was a story I heard once about "the foolish traveler" in Japan. This person gave all they had and were generous. So people started to use them, they would even lie to the person. They would tell them that they were sick and needed medicine and he would give them anything he could. Once he was out of money he started to give away his belongings and clothing. He ended up naked in the forest without anything. Then goblins came claiming that they were starving so he gave up his body to them to eat. All that he had left in the end was his head, with no eyes. Then the goblins, mocking him, said they had a present for him. It was a piece of paper with the word "Fool" written on it. Then he cried out of joy, "This is the first time anyone has given me anything!" And he died while saying thank you and crying...

Is that story very fictional and a bit morbid? Yes. Does it have a good point? Yes.

People read that and take away, "stupid person, don't give away what you have or you will die like that!"

I take it as "That is how I should live my life".

I am not going to give up my body for goblins to eat, but I will give what I have.

"If a man asks for your shirt give him your cloak as well." (Matt. 5:40)

To keep giving is what I want my life to be like, and it is so hard to give up what I have to others. I know I need to do it and I fight every time a person asks for somethings from me. Money, food, clothes, time, etc. We want things things that we consider "ours" to stay ours. But aren't all of these things Gods in the end?

He gave us life, out time on this Earth, our food, our clothes, our money and job, these are all blessings and gifts from God. He can take them away at will. So when he asks us, through the Holy Spirit, to give it to others why can we not give it? It is not really ours, it is Gods. We should be willing to give up what God has given us at any time, He gives and takes away.

The study of love is a convicting one. Once you think you are loving you realize that you really are not... Christmas is coming up and it is the greatest time to show love. We choose this time to celebrate Christ being given to us men, because God so loved us all. What better time to show His way of love to others? Be charitable, and do not stop after winter ends. Let us all work together to really reflect Christ. To be the Moon reflecting the Sun. That is what draws people to God. I know that I will probably mess up but I want to at least try, with His grace.

Refining the Faith,

-C.A.M.

Photo Credit: http://www.vine2victory.com/real-love/

Love Is... Part 5

It's difficult for me to even write this post, this has to be one of the most convicting parts of love to me.

Love is. . . Not dishonoring to others.

I think that pride has a part of dishonoring others. Like I said before, when you are prideful you put others down in order to make yourself look better because you are insecure. It harsh, I know, but the truth hurts (because of our pride).

I feel it makes perfect sense that if you are loving someone that you are not purposely dishonoring them. It sounds like an old fashioned word, so lets put it in "modern terms",

"Love does not 'diss' others, love is not sarcastic towards others, love does not laugh when others fail, love does not point out what is lame about other people, and love does not make people look stupid in front of others on purpose." I think putting it that way makes it sound more applicable to our lives today, for me it does.

To dishonor means to "bring shame or disgrace on a person."

. . . Yeah... I am not even sure what to say after that.

How often is it that we make a joke of others for our own fun? Today we even have television shows devoted to who can "burn" or "diss" the other person the best. If you did not know that I am being completely serious about that, it really exists. It seems like such a normal thing to us but it is not the right thing to do. I struggle so much with sarcasm, I try hard to suppress it, but it comes out all the time though! I hate it when it happens and I hate thinking back on times that I hurt others deeply, or saw others hurting that person and did nothing about it. Did you know that the word sarcasm comes from the late Greek word "Sark" meaning "to tear the flesh"? It is a picture of what the words do to people. "Stick and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" is a complete lie. Words hurt people in far deeper ways than you know. Negative words have been studied by many people. (I suggest the work on water crystals that was done, it is pretty shocking to see)

We all seem to find sarcastic comments hilarious, I include myself in this, but when you are away from it for a while you do not find it nearly as funny as before. I was in an internship and the people I spent most of my time with were told to not be sarcastic anymore. When I did hear a comment like that it shocked me more than it made me laugh. I think that we are trained that it is funny from a young age, but we can also train ourselves to not like it anymore. It is a long process filled with prayer to get to a point where you recognize that it is not right, it is possible though.

So to love people we do not dishonor them. When a person "fails" at something we move on and do not point it out, laugh at it, or anything. If we are being loving, in the 1 Corinthians way, we encourage them instead and discourage those who are making fun. To them you may seem like a kill-joy, but to the person you are defending you are loving.

I do not think I can ever picture Jesus dishonoring another person... When they took sinners before Jesus he did not join in the mockery of them, he defended them. He is the essence of love and we are to reflect him, so we should be doing the same. Would people have hated Jesus if he helped stone the adulterous woman? Probably not, they would have seen nothing wrong with it. Consider the lepers as the "uncool", the deformed, and the disabled in todays society. Rejecting them would be easy and normal, but normal is not the standard that we live by! Healing them, touching them, talking to them, loving them, that is what Jesus did. That is what early Christians did. So why are we not doing the same?

Learning to shut our mouth has to be one of the first parts of learning to love. A wise man holds his tongue. I am trying to add a "Holy Spirit Filter" to my mouth these days. "Would Jesus say that?...No? Okay, time to be quiet," and, "Would Jesus say that? Yes... I suppose I should say it." You can also go by Bambi rules, "if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all." So simple, and so difficult.

I probably do not need to write much more about this. How to apply this to daily life is pretty evident. Try to not point out the flaws of others, the mistakes of others, or make fun of others, even if it is "just a joke" or you are "just kidding". Build others up, even if your image goes down. This is what love is all about.

-Refining the Faith,

C.A.M.

Photo Credit: http://www.nosexandthesuburbs.com/tag/love/

Love Is... Part 4

It seems like as I go through aspects of love I see things are all connected to each other in some way. The more of them I look at the more I see that you need one to have the other...

Love is. . . Not prideful and does not boast

Pride: a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc. a becoming or dignified sense of what is due to oneself or one's position or character; self-respect; self-esteem. Pleasure or satisfaction taken in something done by or belonging to oneself or believed to reflect credit upon oneself.

Boast: Talk with excessive pride and self-satisfaction about one's achievements, possessions, or abilities.

I feel like in our society pride is looked at as a character quality and not something to be avoided. In these standards pride is a wonderful thing to have and we should all be at least a little prideful about us, but is that just mixing pride with true humility? The wisdom of this World is slowly being mixed in with our faith and we do not realize this until it is too late.

"You should have a little pride, it's good for you!"

"You need to be selfish every now and then!"

"If you give somebody something you should expect something back, they owe you one!"

"You cannot just devote your whole life to God, you need some 'me time' in there as well!"

Do any of these sound familiar? I find it sad that most of these sentences come from the people closest to us, the ones we trust to advise us. I remember myself even telling people these things a while back, and I deeply regret it now...

So as a God fearing, Christ followers, and people who listen to the Holy Spirit, what should our view be on these things?

Pride:

"His pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God." 2 Chronicles 26:16

"In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God." Psalm 10:4

"When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom." Proverbs 11:2

"Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice." Proverbs 13:10

"Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." Proverbs 16:18

"Your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God." Deuteronomy 8:14

"Before his downfall a man’s heart is pride, but humility comes before honor." Proverbs 18:12

Well... Those are just a few verses that show what our view on pride should be. We should have a clear view on how God sees pride, yet we still let a the lies of the world sneak their way in.

Since I mentioned the others I will list a few verses on them as well

Selfishness:

"Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain."Psalm 119:35-37

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves." Philippians 2:2-4

"For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice." James 3:15-17

Give to get something in return:

“If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not treat it like a business deal; charge no interest." Exodus 22:24-26

"Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need." Deuteronomy 15:7-9

"And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back." Luke 6:34-35

Partial devotion:

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." Matthew 6:23-25

"So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the LORD yourGod and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul— Deuteronomy 11:13

So now that the bunny trail is over, back to the subject of love.

Pride is not to be tolerated. I consider prude to be the exaggeration of your own skills and talents to puff yourself up so that, because of your low self-worth, you can feel better about yourself. Pride is the opposite of self-esteem, it is insecurity in disguise. It is the act of elevating yourself higher, and pushing all others lower so that you feel like you are an okay person. Does that sound like Jesus? Does that sound like love? Making others look bad so you look better and trying to make them hate themselves so you look like you like who you are...

A lot of loving others is working on yourself, how can you love others like yourself if you are not even confident in who you are and hate yourself? This is where true humility comes into play. The definition of humility, true, biblical, christlike humility, is knowing exactly who you are. A big "Christian Joke" is the verse in Numbers 12:3

"Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth."

This verse is true humility, not the false one we think of. When we think humble we think of the person who says "Oh, I'm nothing special..." the person who will not take credit for anything. This verse is saying the Moses knew exactly who he was, especially when compared to God. I think that if you spent time speaking face to face with God you would also have a good picture of who you were.

It comes when we realize that we are all sinners, we are all loved equally by God, that we are valued and royal children, but also that apart from God we can do nothing. It is not over or under exaggerating our position in life. Willingness to serve in the lowest position, but being able to be confident in a higher position. If you want to see humility played out read the red print in the Gospels, watch humility in the flesh.

The more time spend with Christ, the more we know who we are and become humble. Another thing is that when people tell me I am being prideful I will usually say something like, "You don't even know the half of it! But I am working and praying to rid myself of it!" I think that we need to realize we have pride, and sin, to get rid of it. The moment you think you are fine, that is when you are in trouble.

Pride is the soil that all sin grows in, pride is in part why Satan in no longer an Angel in Heaven, pride is partly why we fell in the garden, the list goes on and on...

So does it make sense that we need to rid ourself of pride and boasting in order to love others properly? Of course it does!

How do we show humility towards others? We build them up, not ourselves. Do not feel the need to put others below you. You can still have confidence in yourself without talking about it all the time, the quiet confidence-meekness. (We boast alone in our God.) To not be prideful we conduct ourselves in the right way and listen more than we speak, and to build up others rather than tearing them down. As we are less prideful we start to see how other gravitate more towards us, because they feel loved. When you are not prideful you find it a bit easier to love others and see them for who they really are, precious treasures of the Lord.

This is love.... At least a small part of it.

Refining the faith,

C.A.M.

Photo Credit: http://favim.com/image/162420/

Love Is... Part 3

As I am looking into love it already seems like an extremely difficult task, even though so far all we have is patience and kindness.

Love is. . . Not envious

The last two aspects of love were things that we are to do, now there are things that we are not to do if we are loving someone. "Love does not envy", to not envy or covet is also one of the Ten Commandments. When I see something mentioned more than once, especially mentioned in major areas, in the Bible I figure that I need to note it and that it is being repeated because of its importance.

Envy is "the desire to have a quality, possession, or other attribute belonging to someone else. A feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else's possessions, qualities, or luck."

Covet is to "yearn to possess or have something"'

I figure that the opposite of envy is contentment, peace, and self-control. When you do not envy another person you rejoice with them in all the things that they posses. So as I see it there are two basic steps you take to become a less envious person.

First, you are satisfied with your life and what you have. You are content with the house you have, with your body, with your talents, and with the blessings that you have. When you covet another person it is because they have the thing you want, you want that thing because you are not satisfied with what have and you "need that to make you happy". To be "happy" we need more of everything and anything, we become greedy and "yearn to posses or have something". In todays culture this is acceptable, it is only natural to want a better life right? That is the way of the world though, we are not of this world and the way we are to love is not in their standards! In the Kingdom of God the poor, weak, and least of all people are the greatest. In His Kingdom we do not crave to have possessions that will fade away and be destroyed.

My "life verse" that I try to conduct myself by is Matthew 6:32-35, "Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and all these will be provided for you." What we need is provided for, and sometimes even things that we do not need but would like to have are also given to us. We should be living perfectly content lives as Christians then, in theory at least. There are advertisements that appeal to our covetous nature, showing something another person has and how happy they are since they purchased it, and now you too need to buy it. We all fall for this, Christian or not. We are told what is a basic and necessary lifestyle to have and we show that to God even though his idea of living life and the worlds idea of it are different things.

God created us, so he knows are nature and weaknesses. He knows that when we have a lot of things we want more of it. There is even a prayer in the Bible asking God for just enough so that we do not forget him and chase after the world and do not have too little that we doubt him. This should be our heartbeat. We are content with what we own.

Another part is being content with our skills and the way that we look. We also covet the bodies of models and the skills of celebrities. Until you value yourself and the way the God created you loving other people in the proper fashion is out of the question. How can you love your neighbor as yourself is you hate your life and who you are? How can we love others in the way that God loves us if we believe ourselves to be unlovable and will not accept or understand His love?

Think on this, are you truly content with your life how it is? Are you comparing yourself to others?

Second, you rejoice in the blessings of others and feel blessed to see others blessed. When you are content with who you are and what you own you then look at others in a new light. You no longer are comparing how much better their life is and compete to see who can be better off. When another person gets the promotion you want are you truly happy for them? When your friend is pregnant when you have been trying for years do you rejoice with them without bitterness or discontent? When blessing after blessing comes to other people so you thank God for blessing them in your prayers, or do you ask Him to give you the same thing out of jealousy. Do you feel like an equal child of God with everyone else, or do you feel like they are a favored child and you are the ugly duckling.

If you truly love a person then when they are blessed you are also blessed and they now feel even better because others are happy for them. This love is not to give you warm and fuzzy feelings, it is to make you make others happy. You have peace with your life and you do not indulge in consuming things to "one up" those around you, making them feel worse so that you can feel better. I do not know how I can ever fully master being content and praising God for the blessings of others, especially if I try to do it on my own strength. It is in my corrupted nature to envy everyone I see for something, and that is corrupt love.

When we see people who are more or less fortunate than us we should pray for them to be blessed, because we would rather them be better off then ourselves. To not envy is an extreme of self sacrifice and of putting everyone else before us. The last shall be first. People really feel loved when we show them that we are concerned with their happiness and that we are not with them for selfish motives, to gain what we want that they have. We restrain our personal desires and instead see what they need. Do not covet of envy, because you are also blessed and it hurts both God and others to see you wanting more and more when you have enough. You are highly blessed, go bless others and celebrate how good God is. Lets love people not for what they do and do not have but because they are precious.

Refining the faith,

C.A.M.

Photo Credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Love_heart.jpg

Love Is... Part 2

So far I have written about patience, the foundation of Christ-like nature. Yet there is so much more to showing love to others still.

Love is. . . Kind

Kindness... Also a fruit of the spirit. I find it really amusing that most of the fruits of the spirit and aspects of love are the same or similar. Though it makes sense that since God is love that when we cultivate the fruits of the spirit love for others can come naturally.

The definition of kind is,

Of a friendly, generous, or warm-hearted nature. Showing sympathy or understanding; charitable. Humane; considerate. Forbearing; tolerant. Generous; liberal. Agreeable; beneficial.

Who knew that a small four letter word could mean so much? There must be a lot to being a "kind person" in the eyes of others and of God.

I cannot help but feel convicted as I study love. I have not even gotten very far yet and I already keep asking myself, "am I a patient and kind person?" I am not sure if I can consider myself that highly. I think the main thing is that when I look at these things I can think of myself as Kind or Patient etc. at certain times or to certain people...Sure, that's better than not showing it anytime yet still this is far from being good enough for me or for God. I cannot help but wonder what my life would be like if God loved only a few people or loved us only at certain times.

"For God so loved the world...When He was in a good mood and they were behaving..."

That does not really sound like God's love to me. It does sound like my love towards others if I were to be blunt about it. Loving people when it is convenient for myself sounds ridiculous yet that is how I seem to live my life. I am a firm believer that without Christ in me I cannot love people in the right, pure, and unwavering way that I hope to. Apart from Him I am nothing, I am a horrible, sinful person and a rebellious child.

So to love people in this aspect we should be generous with anything and everything we own. If someone needs something we have then they should have it soon. When we meet people we should be friendly toward them, and then always be friendly from that point onward. We should be friendly to people we know and to people we do not know, for some one is harder than the other. When I think of being kind as in warm-hearted I think of hospitality. I had to learn a lot about hospitality in the past year, and it is important especially for women to have. You make people feel comfortable when you are with them and when then are in your home. You are welcoming to everyone and make them feel like your own and make them feel special.

When someone you know is feeling hurt, you hurt with them. We sympathize with people and try our best to understand them. You are always open to hear what is on their mind and you put others as your top priority over your time and the things that you want. You treat all people with respect and equally. You constantly think of others feelings and how they are doing and if they are not doing well then you try to cheer them up. Another thing is that you always make sure that your existence is beneficial to others and is improving their lives. It does not matter if they hurt you, you are going to be kind in return.

So if you want to be loving you not only have to die to yourself in patience but also in kindness. This is not being "fake" and pretending that you are a "nice person", this is being a genuinely kind person always and to everyone. Do not think you are faking it when you are really trying hard to be kind. It is going to take the grace of God and perseverance to become a loving person for everyone. The Enemy may lie and tell you that you are just faking it and not really loving people and that it is your selfish motive and that you are being a phony and that it is impossible to love. God does not give us more than we can handle with His grace and Spirit within us. And we are told to love people, so therefore it must be possible. This is hard work and I know this because I am trying to work at this as well. I am trying my best, through Christ, to be loving and there are times that I screw it up and there are times where I do not feel like it but I do it anyways because no matter what my feelings are I am still to love others as He first loved me.

So let us all try to be patient and kind this time. It already sounds improbable to me and there are over ten more things that apply to true love. Being that kind of kind person is the ideal me and I am going to pursue it so that I may show others the love of God and reflect Him the best I can with my small light that points to The Light of the world.

Keeping the faith,

C.A.M.

Photo Credit: http://www.livebyladybugs.com/2011/07/is-love-really-“ain’t-enough”/

Love Is... Part 1

Lately I have been feeling like I should write about love, as in 1 Corinthians 13 love. So I finally gave in today and decided to start this "series" about love.

Not to be too "Bible Study" on everyone but I just wanted to go to each of the 15 aspects of love one at a time. So here we go!

Love is... Patient

"Patience is a virtue!" is something that I heard a lot growing up. Patience is such a huge part of being a Christian and I feel like it can be overlooked. Patience is a "virtue", a fruit of the spirit, and an aspect of love. If it is mentioned so much in the Bible that should mean that it's really important, right?

I also think that why it's mentioned so many times is because it really is one of the hardest things to have in your life. You have to love like Christ and model a godly life to be patient with people. Patience is "the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering, without getting angry or upset." This does not sound like an easy thing to me.

Now I am sure other people are like this but I always considered myself a patient person. Then one day God decided that I should see how human and impatient I truly am. For a week it seemed like every single thing that happened would call for me to be patient. I had to accept and love people through the delay, trouble, and suffering of myself. It was so incredibly aggravating! By the end of that week and saw how weak I was. I had to hold in my frustration and then I would go and ask God for strength and for love. I walked out of my dorm room one day in a silent fury and saw 1 Corinthians 13 written on the white board by my Core Advisor... It seems like she would always team up with God to convict me at all the right times.

It is easy to be patient when you wait for a person for a few extra minutes. It can be pretty easy to wait in line, wait for a phone call, or wait for your food to come. What about tolerating trouble or suffering? I think that is where the patience of Christ come into play. It is not so easy to be patient when you have to be patient with a person who does every one of your pet peeves, when you are going to be late to a very important event because of another person, and when somebody hurts you over and over again. I don't know about you but these things are hard for me to be patient with.

This is true love for others. When we prioritize others above ourselves and "love our neighbor as ourself" we are going to have to be patient with them. They were running late, you still love them and do not lash out at them. They keep insulting you, you do not insult them back and instead pray for them and keep loving them. The person may seem annoying to you, but is that the love of God? We are to love others as God has loved us. Do you not think that God has been so patient with us? God is so immensely patient! He deals with all of our broken promises and sins that we are addicted to. He still loves us because He is love and love is patient.

I find myself so selfish that I take the patient love of God for myself but I do not want to show it to others. As Christians we are to be known by our love. I learned so much about what true love is when I was an intern at Teen Mania. I lived with five girls that I had never met before, I worked with people I did not know very well and talked to all types of people on the phone all day. Most importantly I learned more about the love God has for us, and it was a breakthrough moment in my life. I was shocked to see a glimpse of Gods incredible love for me and for us all. Then I found a verse saying to love others as He first loved us... So I am supposed to love people n the way God loves me? How can I possibly do that?

Through Christ...

Oh, patience! You are such a difficult fruit to cultivate and such a difficult part of love to constantly show. Something that you should be careful of is a prayer for patience. God tends to not give us what we pray for when they are character traits, he gives us the opportunity to grow in it. Also, boasting to yourself that you are patient is dangerous, as previously stated. It is still a good thing to grow in though. If you feel like you are not patient then ask for it and then be prepared to grow.

So is there ever a time where we should stop being patient? Well, is there ever an appropriate time to not love others as Christ said to? We tend to think, "I'll be patient, but there is a point where they don't deserve to have me be patient and they just need to grow up and learn a lesson."

Love is not supposed to be an easy thing, an overly romantic thing, or just an emotion we feel for others. It is hard work. We always are to be patent/loving! What they do does not matter because Christ loved us through all the junk in our lives and we should show that same love.

I want to be a patient person. I want to be okay with circumstances and trouble caused by others. To do this I need the love of Christ and His strength to do so. So let us all practice cultivating patience in our lives from now on, and be patience even through the suffering, just as Christ was.

Keeping the Faith,

C.A.M.

Photo Credit: http://livelovederby.blogspot.com/