1 Cor. 13:1-13 (ESV) 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 give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. [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; [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. [8] Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. [9] For we know in part and we prophesy in part, [10] but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. [11] 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. [12] For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. [13] So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. In a world as busy as the one we live in, how many of us can say that we are truly loving one another the way Christ has called us to love? I must confess that I fall very short in this biblical command. My life is packed with activities, work, church, school, chores, work! I barely have time to collect my thoughts before I move on to the next thing on my list. A lot of it is necessary, but when I finally have a few minutes to unwind, the last thing I want to do is pick up the phone and call someone, or get in my car and go to visit someone. Jesus made it very clear that we were to love one another, to place other's needs before our own, to love others as we love ourselves. I'm failing.
Recently a friend put together a prayer vigil for the sake of her brother's salvation. A round the clock prayer vigil for 3 days. I was convicted and challenged by the love displayed in that one act. How often do I pray earnestly and unceasingly for those I "love" who are lost? I'm too busy. Is that a good enough excuse? Absolutely NOT! As christians that should be our greatest passion for those we love who don't know Jesus.
I've also been aware of the busyness of life within the church these days and I confess that I am the worst at this. How often do we make time for one another, to invest in one another's lives, to pray for one another? and how often do we just not have time, have somthing else going on?
What are we doing? We have been given a command to love and an example of what that means....to lay down our lives for another!
Oh God, please impress this on our hearts. Help us to let go of the busyness of this world. Help us to stop and truly consider every activity on our books and seek whether or not it's Your will for our lives or whether You have something else You want us to do with that time You've given us. Help us to invest in one another, lay down our lives for one another. Lord, give us a passion for the lost, let our heart's cry be for their salvation. Let us pray unceasingly for Your work in their lives. Give us grace to change, Lord. Convict us where necessary and point us to the cross as we desperately try to live out this command. Let us look to other's needs before our own.
Give us grace to grow in love, true love, as You have loved, Lord Jesus! That You may be glorified in our lives. AMEN
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