1 Corinthians 13 The Way of Love
- ] If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. …
This week I am focusing on relationships…ya know those things filled with love and stuff? What is a relationship? Webster defines it as follows:
re·la·tion·ship
noun \-shən-ˌship\
: the way in which two or more people, groups, countries, etc., talk to, behave toward, and deal with each other
: a romantic or sexual friendship between two people
: the way in which two or more people or things are connected
God describes it perfectly in the scripture verse above. Love is something we might never ever wrap our minds fully around. This week I will share a little bit about my husband and I’s relationship in hopes of shedding light onto the subject from our perspective. Let me begin by stating, I told God I did not want a man in my life. Some may giggle, but I did exactly that. After being in a very broken relationship for 22 years, I just wanted to publish a book and travel. That’s it. No attachments. No commitment except to God. Just me, myself and Jesus!
Funny how God had MUCH bigger plans for me. It says a relationship is how people communicate or deal with each other. Hmmm, deal with? It makes it sound like such a complicated, hard thing. A true relationship built on love is easy. Yes there are some things to work out, however, I feel the secret to a successful relationship is simply God. If God is love, then a relationship based on God is then surely based on love. John and I know that if we ever stop letting God be the center of our marriage we will surely fall short of the intent of love. We know that the absence of God is the absence of love.
When John and I met we both knew God. Now, while I was content to be without man, John on the other hand was seeking for a wife. I still laugh sometimes when I think about how sneaky God can be sometimes. So often in life we think we have it all figured out and we are going to tell God how it’s going to go. Wrong! He has awesome plans for our lives. He longs to see us happy! So long story short, God showed up in both of our lives and though John got what he wanted all along, I had to come to the realization that often God gives us what we need in life long before we realize that we really wanted it all along anyways.
Tomorrow, I will share how things change in relationships. I will share how we can grow stronger in not only love but our faith. If only we could get that embedded in our brains: God is love and love is God, the word relationship would not be such a scary one in our vocabulary.
Step Upon the Golden Road with Me! 