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Wednesday 28 October 2015

The Love Chapter

Let's talk about LOVE.
LOVE God's way.. :)

"Laura, why love?"
"Because they will know we are Christians by our love."(John 13:35)
Not by works, or by majesty, but by our love..

What is love?
Who defines love?
Truth is, we all love by our own different definitions.. To one, love is giving and to another, the measure of love is in words..
But it's simple.
GOD IS LOVE.
He is the personification of love.
He defines love.

You're in for a great time as we go on with this discussion... :)

Allow me to take you to the Love Chapter, as I love to call it.. 1 Corinthians 13..
I'd encourage you to read through the whole of it but for now I will delve mainly into verses 4 to 7.
"4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[ b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
Paul writes this to a dysfunctional church at Corinth to rebuke them for abuse of gifts. And this is a chapter that is now often read at weddings and anniversaries, of which there's nothing wrong with that. However, it's very easy to superficially appreciate love and claim to practise it.. Because love is not an emotion, it's an action. 
He describes a completely selfless love in these senses:

1.Love is patient.
Love God's way does not lose it's temper easily.. It doesn't say, "I'm giving you only one more chance."
It keeps calm, with people and through difficult circumstances.
God humbles us enough with our personal shortcomings despite the many times we fail.. The least we could do is show patience to others when they fall short of our expectations.
Loving people are willing to tolerate the shortcomings of others because they know they have faults too.

2.Love is kind.
Love God's way is kind.
Not too permissive, kind..
Not to mean that everyone and anyone can and may take advantage of you, but to mean that even when your portraying some tough love, your words and actions do not fall far from the will of God.

3. Love does not envy.
A loving person is as enthusiastic about the success of others as they are about their own.. genuinely.
Being a Christian doesn't mean you can never feel jealous. And there is something we can do about it, pray.
This is the best way to cure envy. To pray for him or her demonstrates love, and love and jealousy cannot dwell on the same heart.

4. Love does not boast.
Gifts are generously given to us by God, therefore we have no reason to attribute anything to ourselves.
Pride sets in from time to time, most times unwaringly..
But I do believe that the more you fill your heart with the Love of God, the more these vices lack room.

5.Love is not arrogant.
Love respects, does not push for positions, and does not demean others.

6.Love is not rude.
There is a graciousness in love that translates to how we speak.
Jesus can help us, even in this.

7.Love is not self-seeking.
Love is not possessive, demanding, stubborn, or dominating. Love does not talk too much but listens as well. Love does not insist on its own way. It is always willing to give attention to others, and even compromise, when need be.

8.Love is not easily angered.
Agape love knows nothing about emotional outbursts and tantrums.
It is able to control irate people or a annoying situations with calmness and maturity.

9.Love keeps no record of wrongs.
This one really got to me.
I keep journals and countless times my classmates would fear to even look at what I'm writing because (as I came to discover) most journals contained lots of heavy tantrums and all manner of things that so and so did or didn't do that hurt or annoyed you. Well, it's taken to be a way of venting, but I can imagine how it is to always read what you wrote about someone when you were very annoyed at them. It brings back a lot of things..
We'll, this is just but an example, but many times, even in our hearts, we hold something against people who hurt us for very wrong and it hinders us from ever relating with them in the same way.
Love God's way forgives. It covers a multitude of sins.

10.Love always:
i)protects
Yes, she got pregnant at 18, but don't be part of the 411 team.
Love God's way does not rejoice in failure of others.
Even when others come to you with the 411, you could change the story to.. "Do you love coffee? I loooooovvveee coffee.. Want some?!"

ii) trusts
Ever met someone who, you know they've just been duped, but they are convinced," she didn't mean it."
And you're like, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE DIDN'T MEAN IT?!"
Haha..
Well..
I don't know about you..but I wannabpractise live like my Jesus did.
The Pharisees are speaking ill.. But oh well, they don't mean it!

iii) hopes
Hope and doubt are oil and water.. They don't go together.

iv) perseveres
Yes, that irritating friend.
There's a reason they came your way.

11.Love bears all things!
This is pretty much like what I said earlier.
Love doesn't nitpick, looking for faults all around and having an eye for the wrong things people do.
LOVE doesn't broadcast bad news, it goes a second mile to protect.
I came across this quote somewhere:
“There are many times in my life when I’ve been sorry I opened my mouth. But there has never been a time I’ve been sorry I kept silent.”
Stay strong.
Persevere.

12.Love believes all things.
This is where benefit of doubt comes in.
Believing the best in people.
We all work best in an atmosphere where we feel trusted and appreciated.
Create an environment for those around you to perform to their best.
Look for the best. It doesn't mean you won't see the worst. But focus on the best.


13.Love endures all things.
Love God's way does not retaliate or reject.
It doesn't say, "I'm done with you!"
"I don't want anything to do with you ever again! "

Wow..
It's been one long post, I know..
But this is the most important part that I pray you understand with as much weight as I did.
We may make efforts to work towards practising all these things but without knowing the one true personification of love Himself then it's all null:(
Jesus loves you.
Greater love had no man than this.. That He lay down His life for his friends.
1 John 4:8:
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

I pray that we may all work towards understanding in depth the true nature of God because, then and only then will we be able to solidify our understanding of love.
We don't sign in to this by focusing on love but on the personification of it.. The definition of it.
Live it out! :)

The world will take notice, and lives will be changed.

Lots of Love,
Laura.


Wednesday 14 October 2015

Hidden Faults

Unknown errors..
We all have these.

I recall sharing with you about my struggle with perfectionism.You my read about that here. It has a little to do with what I'll share with you on this post.

Being Christians doesn't mean that we never wander from the will of God, we do. We sin.
On to our first reference verse for this topic:
Psalms 19:12(NIV)
"But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults."
The first thing I derive from this verse is that as human beings, there are some errors we make that we can't notice, we can't understand, we can't detect.
Why?Simply because they are unintentional.

So, there are two kinds of sin: intentional (or rather, out of human weakness) and unintentional.
As Christians, any discovery of sin should lead us to the throne of grace, to confess and seek forgiveness. There is a natural proneness to sin even in the best of men, and if we don't constantly pray against temptation, we may find ourselves falling into it. Presumptuous sins are strangely dangerous.
In this verse, David not only desired to be pardoned and cleansed from the sins he had discovered and confessed, but from those he had forgotten or overlooked.
And that's what I'd like to encourage us to start doing from today.

Just to emphasize on the importance, Hebrews 4:13 tells us, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."
He knows it all, He sees it all, So take it all to Him. He is abounding in grace.


Please pray with me:
"Oh Lord, wash away with your precious blood, even the sin my conscience has been unable to detect. Father, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable unto you. In Jesus Name. Amen"

God bless you! :)

Love,
Laura.