Unstoppable

If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:2-3)

That’s one pretty impressive life, don’t you think?  Know all mysteries, have all knowledge, ability to move mountains, give away all possessions, even surrender your life as a martyr, but in God’s eyes, if it’s not rooted in love, one big yawn.

We put a premium on the manifestation of gifts and spend a lot of time pursuing them, but to God they are of no value and profit us nothing if they aren’t motivated by love.

As a matter of fact, we can spend our lives pursuing and operating in the gifts of God, only to hear Him say “I never knew you, depart from me” because our actions weren’t motivated by love for God (see Matthew 7:22-23).

May operation of gifts alone never be the thermometer to gauge our spiritual temperature, but instead, may it be how much we demonstrate love for God and others.

For example, do you love others instead of judging them?  Do you give people what they need, not what they deserve?  Do you befriend people that others dislike?

If you find your heart lacking in love, ask God to fill you with His love.  We cannot love others unless we first love God.  We can’t give what we don’t have.

This week our pastor made the statement “You are an unstoppable force on the earth when you let the Father’s love live through your life!”  After hearing that, I was reminded of a movie based on a true story about a runaway train that careened around the state of Pennsylvania destroying everything in its path.  It started out as slow moving train, but as time went on, it gained speed until it was travelling down the tracks at 60 miles per hour and no way to stop it.

 

If you let God’s love gets a hold of you, you will become unstoppable, wreaking havoc on the kingdom of darkness and turning lives upside down with the love of God.  Now, imagine thousands of runaway trains called the body of Christ, fueled with the love of God…