Thursday 2 Aug 2012

Thursday Reading: 1 Corinthians 13:8-13

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 13:13
13  And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

Devotion:
Love, expressed here as charity, is central to human existence. God instilled us with love so that we would be able to better understand Him and so that we would be able to live in a society where we would be able to encourage each other. If He had only left us with lust then we would have evolution, but instead God created us and gave us this love for His purpose.

Whilst everything else in our lives will fail at some stage, love is not going to fail. We have this notion that love does fail, but that is earthly love and not the true love that Christ has shown us. The earthly love that we sometimes grab a hold of does fade with time and does have its ups and downs, but that love that God has given us will continue throughout everything. So does this mean that we have to try it out and see if it will fail before we know if it is true? Well that may well be the way you first find out about the difference between earthly love and true Christian love.

It will take a lot of reading from God’s Word and a lot of studying if you want to be able to find out about Christian love through learning. But if you are willing to be patient and first experience that love with Christ you will be in good stead to find that true love with the right person when God brings them into your life. I count myself lucky to have been single for an extended period so that I can begin to understand that true Christian love. I now find myself in a somewhat envious position of being able to understand more of Christ’s love for us as well as how I can love others more as well.

I continue to be amazed at how much you can love someone when you give them Christian love and expect nothing in return. That is what Christ has shown us by expressing His love in such an awesome way but knowing that we would not love Him in that same way. So it is little wonder then that we are told that the most important factor in our lives is the love that Christ wants us to know and keep. It may take us a long time to learn about this love that Christ has shown, but once we have it we will never lose it!

Points to Ponder:
How do you measure your love?

Have you compared it with Christ’s love for you?