Love is...

Have you ever heard of “The Love Challenge?”  A few years ago I learned about it in a Bible Study I was a part of.  It is very simple, but you must commit to do it every day!  I have done it a few times and it is really a challenge I could handle doing every day for the rest of my life!  It truly is that good!

Here it is…The Love Challenge:  Read 1 Corinthians 13 every day for 30 days and ask God to empower you and to fill you with His love for others.  I would love for you to join me in this exercise!  See if you don’t love those around you differently, better…more like Jesus.  That is our goal, to look and love more like Jesus!   Since Jesus is perfect, His love is perfect!!!  “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”  1 John 3:16

Our love, just like all of us, is flawed by our sin.  We are incapable of loving like the verses 1 Corinthians 13 talks about on our own.  It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit in us that we are able to live and love in such a way.  The more we Know Him, the more we Love Him.  The more we Love Him the more we Follow and Obey Him.  “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”  Matthew 7:7

1 Corinthians 13

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails.  But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.  When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall we face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love.”

Are you up for the challenge?  I  am, let’s do it together!  I’m going to print several copies and place them around my house.  In 30 days we can share with each other how God has worked in our hearts and how we are loving those around us differently!  Can’t wait to hear from all of you!  I’m praying for you, praying we’ll be convicted and encouraged…ALL by our amazing God, through the Holy Spirit!

“Love is seeking the highest and greatest good for the other person.”  Unknown Author

Joyfully,

Ashley