2006-07-10 - Isn't Love Divine?

Part 3 - The Greatest of These Is Love

The book of Corinthians teaches us to abide in faith, hope, & love, & then reminds us that the greatest of these is love. I've noticed that here faith & hope are placed before love & yet love is the greatest. Therefore, it seems that in order to reach this level of divine love that glorifies God; it appears we must also uphold an attitude of faith and hope. Yet, in maintaining these, we must also endure. And enduring is where love often times loses its "power," due to feelings and emotions. These would be the deep valleys, where it is hard enough to simply continue to walk in unwavering faith, much less hope. And to "love" during these times, especially if your spouse or others do not understand or agree with you, or are possibly at a different level than you, that's the time when we begin to break out the bricks and mortar and become wall builders.

I think this is the time we must pause before allowing our first reactions to move into our defense mechanism. Then allow God to move in you, where I believe you will be able to move into a more realistic stage. Stage 1: realizing your peace is gone & you are no longer enduring this…situation. I believe we all experience this at differing points in our Christian upbringing (we never grow up completely. Our lives are a constant growing & learning process).

It is so much easier to want to do it the easy way, not to mention we may think at the time it would be much more fulfilling (in a sense) to just react in all our humanness. The ole "I want this person to feel what I'm feeling. Then, maybe, just maybe that would make him/her realize how I feel." Well, here's the first problem with that one. Men don't think, feel, or react the way women do. And secondly, there is truly only one partnership that can change someone, and that would be that person & God.

To be continued.

Comments or Questions?
Cheryl

botwbld@cfdevotionals.org
http://www.cfdevotionals.org