What is Love?

Love is patient,
love is kind and not jealous;
love does not brag and is not arrogant,
it does not act unbecomingly;
it does not seek its own,
and is not provoked,
it does not take into account a wrong suffered,
nor does it rejoice in unrighteousness(sin),
but love rejoices with the truth;
and love bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things,
and endures all things.
Love never fails.... 1 Corintians 13:4-8

Do we love like this? We can certainly try. The Bible says that God has shed His love abroad in our hearts. His love is put in us by His Holy Spirit. We have full access to this kind of love, but it means denying oneself.

Denying ourselves does not mean we become doormats for everyone to wipe their feet on. Instead we become a people with a strong resolve that is embedded in God's love, and we are filled with a peace that is hard to understand. We develop a foresight that sees the end from the beginning, enabling us to hope and love the way God does. In that, His will becomes a reality in our lives and in the lives of those we love-sacrificially.

The 'God kind of love' always invovles sacrifice, and its reward is huge.

How many of us would lay our life down for someone else? Jesus did. For sinners-people who miss the mark-regularly. And His reward is exceedingly great. He is now the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords and has for Himself a people called by His name.

Father God, thankYou for Your love that you have put in me. Help me to love like You, to see others with Your eyes. And when people see me, may they see the essence of the one who lives in me-may they see You and be drawn to You and Your love for them. In Jesus' name, amen!!