1 Corinthians 13:4-8a
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
🎶 Love; so many people use your name in vain. Love; those who have faith in you sometimes go astray. Love; through all the ups and downs the joy and pain, for better or worse, I still will choose you first.🎶
-Musiq Soulchild-
I love, love. The idea of love. The reality of love. Well, the latter part wasn't really true until I turned 30 years old and I came to the conclusion that my definition of love was inaccurate. Having no true definition of love literally blocked me from the reality of love. What if I told you that what you may think is love right now, is not love at all? And the reason why you may not have realized love in the way that God designed it, is because you're entertaining your version of it?
Wait, did I speak?
Happy June, beautiful people!
We are officially at the halfway mark of the year. I honestly believe this is going to be the make or break point for a lot of people. If the months of January through May were somewhat dry and looking kind of foggy, I believe this month is where things will clear up and something is just going to click. Major moves in the form of some connections, disconnections, and reconnections will take place among other key and even monumental happenings this month.
Oh and of course, the law of sowing and reaping will go into full effect as of June 1st. People are about to be reimbursed for whatever they've sown, months and even years prior.
Might I add, good or bad.
I'm also hearing that, this is the month of the ANSWER.
Some will like their answer. Others, will not.
Anyway, I will be using the month of June and July to do some expository work on the FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT.
Valiant Apostle Paul, wrote a letter to the Galatians to check their character issues and the abuse of their liberties in God.
He ended the 5th chapter of Galatians with nine fruit or identifiers of the Spirit:
love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. It would only be plausible to start off with LOVE.
Ha! You see what I did there?
I've actually always considered Galatians 5:22-23 as a believer's spiritual social security. Just like in the natural we are traced by nine little numerical digits, AUTHENTIC believers are traced by these nine fruit.
I briefly shared this in an older post I wrote.
But back to my initial inquiry. What if there is a high-key chance that you have love all wrong? Like seriously! When was the last time you challenged your idea of love?
Or better yet, just scrapped it altogether? Because there is a distinct difference between an idea and a reality.
I've discovered, that we must know what love is first in order to know what love isn't. Then we can not only be recipients of love but also representations of love. Understand that Jesus came down here as love personified. Love is not a feeling. It is an action. It is a person.
And until we can without hesitation, divorce ourselves from our thoughts and experiences with every gross brand of love, we will be doing ourselves a great disservice as believers. We should want to know true agape love and we should want to be bright reflections of true agape love.
And when I say agape, (uh-gah-pay), if you've never heard of this term before, I mean, the highest form of love.
The God love.
And when I say agape, (uh-gah-pay), if you've never heard of this term before, I mean, the highest form of love.
The God love.
Let's refer back to 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a.
Open your mind and hearts, we're about to do some work.
Open your mind and hearts, we're about to do some work.
Love is patient: How can you in your waking life, show patience to someone else? When's the last time you've shown patience to someone you don't like?
Love is kind: When's the last time you've shown kindness to someone else? When's the last time you've shown kindness to someone who didn't look like you, shared a difference of opinion than you, or came from a different background as you?
Love does not envy: Have you ever harbored a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else's possessions, qualities, or luck? Have you ever checked yourself when you did, by genuinely getting to know them or fulfilling a need this person may have had?
Love does not boast: When's the last time you felt the need to flaunt your accomplishments or gains in effort to arouse jealousy in others, or to make others feel inferior or less than? Have you ever instead, boasted in your weakness? Have you ever instead showcased what you've accomplished or gained to give God the glory and not yourself?
Love is not proud: When's the last time you rejected correction and flexed your strengths and intellect in an attempt to override accountability? Have you ever dodged opportunities to grow in humility?
Love does not dishonor others: Are you prone to disparaging the characters of others overtly or covertly? Do you use gossip disguised as advice to assassinate people's character? Do you use condescending remarks disguised as wise sayings to shift others perspectives about another person or people?
Love is not self-seeking: Have you ever tried to usurp someone else's authority or tried to finesse a system to get what you want? Have you betrayed your fellow man to get ahead?
Love is not easily angered: Can people be vulnerable around you without fear of you spitting venom on them, throwing fireballs at them, or storing their vulnerabilities for ammunition to use against them later? Is your anger management trustworthy?
Love keeps no record of wrongs: Are you a tit-for-tat person? Do you only bring up someone's error when they confront you about yours?
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth: Are you quick to cosign whatever position suits your narrative even it is ungodly and contradicts the truth?
Love always protects: When's the last time you really covered your neighbor during desperate times with no strings attached? When's the last time you looked out for someone who couldn't return the favor?
Love always trusts: Do you force people to jump through fire hoops in order to allow them to get close to you?
Love always hopes: Are you always complaining about your assignments? Are you always pouring poison on other people's dreams? Has bitterness made you blind?
Love always perseveres. Love never fails: Are you reliable? Can GOD even trust on you? Have you pushed yourself to see things to the end in the endeavors God called you to and the relationships He blessed you with?
I would pray that these questions don't come off as elementary to you but instead pinches your heart enough to get you to introspect. Love is serious! You need to take this serious! I really pray that you were triggered to point out times when you weren't operating in love so that you may be provoked to correct yourself. If you're struggling, God will definitely have to step in and show you.
Even so, this is the beauty of God's grace, better yet the demonstration of His love, that while we were yet sinners...
Hey! Gloraaaaay! Ha!
I'll repeat, once you know what love is, you will know what love isn't. My epiphany at 30 was sparked when I took inventory of my relationship with God.
As well as my love walk with others.
My problem was this, I thought I knew how to BE love. And I surely didn't know how to RECEIVE love.
I figured I knew what love was supposed to look like coming from me but I didn't know how or what love was supposed to look like coming to me. My idea of love was actually that I had no idea at all. This left me open to so much abuse.
After a while I would just become numb to the pain that I thought was inevitable. I would relax my standards and boundaries because that's what I thought I was supposed to do in order to be love and be loved.
And the saints said BUT God! God showed me how love is sacrificial, all inclusive, and all encompassing. Not one sided or selfish. It isn't abusive or manipulative. He revealed to me how love should never or would never leave you depleted and in a constant race to pursue but something that always invigorates, is present, attainable, and available.
He also showed me that my efforts to give love were ways to fill voids in myself that were created from previous attempts to be love to people who couldn't give it or didn't know how to give it in return.
He filled those voids and peeled away my perverted methods, then replaced my idea of love with His manuscript for love, His word. My eyes were opened and my heart was healed. The engagement did not come without its share of blood and tears only because there was a violent release that involved it.
Today though, with confidence I can say, I know true agape love!
Funny, YouTube had been recommending I watch this video of Toure and Sarah Jakes Roberts titled Love, Purpose, Relationships, and Destiny, for weeks. My current attention span for love and relationship forums is very short so I kept disregarding the recommendation, until a couple of days ago. I think I clicked the video on accident to be honest. (*wink*)
There was a part in the segment that broke me down real bad though. Sarah Jakes Roberts was describing how she was talking herself out of receiving love from her now husband. She was going over the possibility that he was only using her for her name, status, and connections.
Then Toure called her as he was sending an email to a PR company. She said as he was talking, she was still going over those possibilities when Toure begin to list his professional history and his resume out loud. She said at that moment he was speaking to her fears and didn't even know. The revelation she shared is that, real love chases down your fears.
That's when I fell out and started balling.
True agape love whatever the dynamic of the relationship whether platonic or romantic, will not cause your fears to swell but to be CHASED down and dissolved!
Isn't that something? Y'all need to catch this!
Hear me, as human beings aspiring to be like Christ, we're not expected to be perfect.
But we can be constantly perfected in love. Our love walks are scheduled to be ongoing and never ending.
Every season will require a greater degree of love from us to express and even to be received.
For some of you, you've pleased God with your expressions of love towards others, now He will be prepping your heart to receive love from others. For another group of you, you've pleased God with how well you've been able to receive love from others, now He will be prepping your heart to show love to others. Then there are those of you who have never actually begun your love walk. You've probably just powered walked down a like walk. He's going to prompt you to begin this walk as He guides your steps, because it is long overdo.
Needless to say, I see Him recalibrating hearts and placing His fingerprint on them that these hearts may properly respond to the carriers of the fruit of the spirit and purely manage those who aren't.
Understand that His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. However He chooses to perform these wonders, is all up to Him.
1 Corinthians 13:13
Love does not envy: Have you ever harbored a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else's possessions, qualities, or luck? Have you ever checked yourself when you did, by genuinely getting to know them or fulfilling a need this person may have had?
Love does not boast: When's the last time you felt the need to flaunt your accomplishments or gains in effort to arouse jealousy in others, or to make others feel inferior or less than? Have you ever instead, boasted in your weakness? Have you ever instead showcased what you've accomplished or gained to give God the glory and not yourself?
Love is not proud: When's the last time you rejected correction and flexed your strengths and intellect in an attempt to override accountability? Have you ever dodged opportunities to grow in humility?
Love does not dishonor others: Are you prone to disparaging the characters of others overtly or covertly? Do you use gossip disguised as advice to assassinate people's character? Do you use condescending remarks disguised as wise sayings to shift others perspectives about another person or people?
Love is not self-seeking: Have you ever tried to usurp someone else's authority or tried to finesse a system to get what you want? Have you betrayed your fellow man to get ahead?
Love is not easily angered: Can people be vulnerable around you without fear of you spitting venom on them, throwing fireballs at them, or storing their vulnerabilities for ammunition to use against them later? Is your anger management trustworthy?
Love keeps no record of wrongs: Are you a tit-for-tat person? Do you only bring up someone's error when they confront you about yours?
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth: Are you quick to cosign whatever position suits your narrative even it is ungodly and contradicts the truth?
Love always protects: When's the last time you really covered your neighbor during desperate times with no strings attached? When's the last time you looked out for someone who couldn't return the favor?
Love always trusts: Do you force people to jump through fire hoops in order to allow them to get close to you?
Love always hopes: Are you always complaining about your assignments? Are you always pouring poison on other people's dreams? Has bitterness made you blind?
Love always perseveres. Love never fails: Are you reliable? Can GOD even trust on you? Have you pushed yourself to see things to the end in the endeavors God called you to and the relationships He blessed you with?
I would pray that these questions don't come off as elementary to you but instead pinches your heart enough to get you to introspect. Love is serious! You need to take this serious! I really pray that you were triggered to point out times when you weren't operating in love so that you may be provoked to correct yourself. If you're struggling, God will definitely have to step in and show you.
Even so, this is the beauty of God's grace, better yet the demonstration of His love, that while we were yet sinners...
Hey! Gloraaaaay! Ha!
I'll repeat, once you know what love is, you will know what love isn't. My epiphany at 30 was sparked when I took inventory of my relationship with God.
As well as my love walk with others.
My problem was this, I thought I knew how to BE love. And I surely didn't know how to RECEIVE love.
I figured I knew what love was supposed to look like coming from me but I didn't know how or what love was supposed to look like coming to me. My idea of love was actually that I had no idea at all. This left me open to so much abuse.
After a while I would just become numb to the pain that I thought was inevitable. I would relax my standards and boundaries because that's what I thought I was supposed to do in order to be love and be loved.
And the saints said BUT God! God showed me how love is sacrificial, all inclusive, and all encompassing. Not one sided or selfish. It isn't abusive or manipulative. He revealed to me how love should never or would never leave you depleted and in a constant race to pursue but something that always invigorates, is present, attainable, and available.
He also showed me that my efforts to give love were ways to fill voids in myself that were created from previous attempts to be love to people who couldn't give it or didn't know how to give it in return.
He filled those voids and peeled away my perverted methods, then replaced my idea of love with His manuscript for love, His word. My eyes were opened and my heart was healed. The engagement did not come without its share of blood and tears only because there was a violent release that involved it.
Today though, with confidence I can say, I know true agape love!
Funny, YouTube had been recommending I watch this video of Toure and Sarah Jakes Roberts titled Love, Purpose, Relationships, and Destiny, for weeks. My current attention span for love and relationship forums is very short so I kept disregarding the recommendation, until a couple of days ago. I think I clicked the video on accident to be honest. (*wink*)
There was a part in the segment that broke me down real bad though. Sarah Jakes Roberts was describing how she was talking herself out of receiving love from her now husband. She was going over the possibility that he was only using her for her name, status, and connections.
Then Toure called her as he was sending an email to a PR company. She said as he was talking, she was still going over those possibilities when Toure begin to list his professional history and his resume out loud. She said at that moment he was speaking to her fears and didn't even know. The revelation she shared is that, real love chases down your fears.
That's when I fell out and started balling.
True agape love whatever the dynamic of the relationship whether platonic or romantic, will not cause your fears to swell but to be CHASED down and dissolved!
Isn't that something? Y'all need to catch this!
Hear me, as human beings aspiring to be like Christ, we're not expected to be perfect.
But we can be constantly perfected in love. Our love walks are scheduled to be ongoing and never ending.
Every season will require a greater degree of love from us to express and even to be received.
For some of you, you've pleased God with your expressions of love towards others, now He will be prepping your heart to receive love from others. For another group of you, you've pleased God with how well you've been able to receive love from others, now He will be prepping your heart to show love to others. Then there are those of you who have never actually begun your love walk. You've probably just powered walked down a like walk. He's going to prompt you to begin this walk as He guides your steps, because it is long overdo.
Needless to say, I see Him recalibrating hearts and placing His fingerprint on them that these hearts may properly respond to the carriers of the fruit of the spirit and purely manage those who aren't.
Understand that His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. However He chooses to perform these wonders, is all up to Him.
1 Corinthians 13:13
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
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