Precisely What God Intended

Love endures with patience and serenity, love is kind and thoughtful, and is not jealous or envious; love does not brag and is not proud or arrogant. It is not rude; it is not self-seeking, it is not provoked [nor overly sensitive and easily angered]; it does not take into account a wrong endured. It does not rejoice at injustice, but rejoices with the truth [when right and truth prevail]. Love bears all things [regardless of what comes], believes all things [looking for the best in each one], hopes all things [remaining steadfast during difficult times], endures all things [without weakening].

I Corinthains 13:4-7

You are amazing just as you are, more beautiful than you can see,

stronger than you feel, and of greater worth than you’ll ever know.

I love You

Love, Father God

If the verses from I Corinthians 13:4-7 are nothing more to you than a syrupy Hallmark card sentiment or an oft repeated passage in a wedding ceremony then they have sadly missed their mark in your life.

They are meant to show us what Godly or Agape love is.

If you read those verses and are the least bit challenged it is a good thing.

You see, apart from Christ, we simply cannot love in that way.

His love in us enables us to love in that way.

And yes, it is something we are all growing in.

To paraphrase some words from Paul used in another part of scripture:

It is not as though I had already attained...

In one sense we have already attained but in another sense we haven’t.

He is in us so His love abides in us, but...getting from the inside to the outside (so to speak) where it flows out to us and others is the growing part.

His love is in me.

Will I release it or will it hide there never to be known by others?

I believe we are at the beginning of a season where the earth will see and know the love of God through each of us in ways we (and they) never imagined.

And yet, it is precisely what God intended!