EXPAND TO READ: 1 CORINTHIANS 13 (HCSB)
PERSONAL JOURNAL:
SIN (verse 3): So very often I do things in this life because I feel obligated to do so instead of feeling the urge from my heart out of love. In this verse, You specifically state that if we feed the poor but do not do so out of love, then we gain nothing. This has been me time-and-time again. Please forgive me for my selfishness, but also for my “just give in and do it” type of attitude towards many of the things I do in this life. Help me to continue to soften my heart so that I may eventually align with Your will for my life, but more importantly be filled so much with Your love through all things that it overflows out of me into all that I do.
PROMISE (verse 8): This entire scripture is about love specifically. In this verse, however, You make a rather interesting promise to us. You promise that prophecies, languages, and even knowledge will eventually all come to an end but love will always remain and will never end. Something that is so important to You that it is unceasing, unending, and bountiful is something that I should deem as extremely important to me as well. Thank You for this promise, Father, as it gives me a greater understanding of Your priorities. If we are doing things out of the love You’ve blessed us with, then everything else will fall into place as it’s meant to and nothing else matters.
ATTITUDE (verse 4): I do struggle so much in this life with patience, envy, boasting, and conceitedness. In this verse You tell us that love is none of these things. I know through my struggles in these attitudes You have taught me so much and I have become better, but these are still a struggle of mine. These are very much something that I will likely be dealing with here-and-there for the rest of my life as they are very much default attitudes of mine. I know through You and with Your great counsel I can be better than I have been and as long as I keep progressing forward on Your path for my life, then I am doing pretty good, even if at times it seems to be at a snail’s pace.
COMMAND (verse 11): I do still feel like I am a child at times in my faith; quite often actually. In this verse Your command is a simple one, but very difficult for me to actually attain for some reason. Your command is to put aside childish things when we become a man. I am still very much living in childish ways in some aspects of my life and not others. This is not what You expect nor command of me, so I must be better. Help me to better identify the areas in my life which You want me to be less childish in, Father. Help me to mature in my faith the way that You expect me to mature.
EXAMPLE (verses 8, 13): These two verses give us such a powerful example as to how important the attitude and emotion of love is to You, Father. In the first verse You tell us of several things that will come to an end but promise us that love never ends. In the second verse You tell us that faith, hope and love will always remain, but that love is the greatest of these three things. Help me to truly embrace love as the greatest attitude and emotion in my life, Father. Help me to no longer halt the progress You’re trying to make in my heart so that all of the hardened areas, hate-filled areas, pain-filled areas, and such can all be softened and replaced with Your love. Help me to truly live in Your love, Father, so that I can glorify You to all those around me in this life.
*DAILY NOTE: Love is always an interesting and powerful yet very convicting topic when I come across it in Your word. Today’s entire scripture was based on the foundation of love. Pretty much every verse in this scripture gave a meaning behind love, importance of love, and facts about love. Help me to be better at realizing my flaws and shortcomings in the area of love, Father. I know I am far from perfect and righteous in the topic of love, but I also know that by myself these are impossible, but with You all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). Thank You for the encouragement, counsel, instruction, and conviction today in the topic of love, Father.
EXPAND TO READ: GENERAL NOTE FOR MY QUIET TIMES
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