1 Corinthians | Ch. 13
From Daniel's Desk on 2/26/20
My Title: What is Love, Baby Don't Hurt Me... no more.
My Verse: 1-3
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I hve away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."
My Response:
Love.
Don't be childish. Grow up! Be mature! The works (gifts) of the Holy Spirit are not cheap parlour tricks! - Be a man. Think like a spiritual adult! - If you are doing anything for selfish gain... even desiring to see the Creator for your own benefit, you're just a noisy gong or pointless endeavor. It all going to burn. Love lasts forever.
All the gifts are pointless if we do them (or even desire to do them) for any other reason other than LOVE. That's got to be the motivation, because that's HIS motivation. It's never been the "what" with God, it's always been the "why" because He's after the heart.
The mighty move of the Holy Spirit is always precursored by prayer, true, but I would say that it's prayer rooted in a heart to LOVE that makes the difference. (Are you praying to heal someone because you want to see the person healed? Or are you praying for healing because you have been asked by God to introduce those that are receiving the healing to the God that loves them for eternity? - How much DO YOU LOVE THEM?)
How Will This Make You a Better Husband/Father:
Move, not as a noisy, clanging cymbal or gong but as an ambassador or a TRUE and LIVING Creator that IS LOVE. - Love your wife. Lead your children by example. Give your children the best picture you can of what their loving relationship with their HEAVENLY FATHER should look like. Model it for them! (You will fail but that shouldn't keep you from trying your hardest)
My Notes:
Love is PATIENT AND KIND; does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with TRUTH. - LOVE BEARS ALL THINGS, BELIEVES ALL THINGS, HOPES ALL THINGS, ENDURES ALL THINGS. LOVE NEVER ENDS.
Prophecies will pass away. Tongues will cease. Knowledge will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but WHEN THE PERFECT COMES, the partial will pass away.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child. When I became a MAN I gave up childish ways.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.