8/30/14

Week 12: Love Never Gives Up

The Greek text is “all things it bears”, so you’ve probably also read it as “Love bears all things.” The word for bears is “stegei” which literally translates as “placing under a roof” or “to cover, conceal or bear with.”

Endure. Cover. Protect. Shield.

Always.

The best example I have of this in my own life is God. It doesn’t seem to matter what I do, where I go, who I am, what I choose, He is always there. He never gives up on me. He bears all things for me. He shields me and covers me. He washes away my sin. He walks me through my pain. He places a roof over my head, a home over my heart. He reassures me when I'm scared. He was with me in every moment. Even in my darkest hour. When I look back in prayer, wondering why God would let something so traumatic happen to me, I realize He was there. When I was utterly alone, scared for my life, and totally ignorant to what was happening, He was sitting beside me. He was holding my hand. And He was whispering to me that everything was going to be okay, and that He was sorry bad things happen. He doesn’t want these things to happen to us. That’s why He came. That’s why He teaches us to pray, “Father, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Because His will isn’t always being done on earth. On earth, horrible things might happen to us, outside of God’s plan for us. But He promises to always be there. To be at our side. To collect our tears. To comfort us. And to take all the bad things and turn it into something good. (Jer 29:11)

He just never lets go.

He never gives up.

Sometimes I give up. I want to give up a lot. Especially lately. I want to throw in the towel. I feel I just don’t have it in me anymore. I’ve been struggling with doubt. I wonder why God leaves me with something that I can’t shake, can’t overcome, something I keep coming back to in my darkest moments. I wonder if God is really changing me and shaping me and making me more like Him.

I feel that I need to Rejoice with Truth in this area of my life, but I don’t know where to start.

Sometimes the truth is far away, and we can only see it through a hazy fog.

Along with Rejoicing with Truth (Week 11), I also need to Never Give Up. The same way God never gives up on me. It’s so silly to think about giving up on God. He’s God. He’ll always be there. He always was. I am such a small and insignificant grain of sand compared to Him. How can I even question Him? And yet, His love for me is endless. It never leaves, it never forsakes, it never lets go. And so what can I do but also never let go, never give up, always stand on truth, even when I don’t understand? What can I do but press on, even when I can’t move? What can I do but believe He is the only way, even when I don’t see a way in front of me? What can I do but rejoice in His truth, the only one that makes sense, the only one that sets my heart on fire, the only one that makes me alive.

The only one that Fills My Heart With Hope.

Love Never Lets Go.

Love Never Gives Up.

Love Rejoices When Truth Wins

I like this translation. It’s not exactly what the original text meant, but it has more meaning for me personally. Love rejoices when truth wins. When Good beats Evil. When Love beats Fear. When we take steps in our lives to choose God over the world, I believe we should rejoice. Even heaven rejoices when people come to know Him.  We don’t make time to stop and rejoice in the good God is doing every day, but we definitely take time to complain about all the things that are Not Good. When I find myself completely miserably, sometimes when I think about all the reasons I have to NOT be miserable, it only makes me more miserable that I’m not already happy. (UGH what a vicious cycle). I definitely allow Evil to win in my life so often that I have an extremely difficult time letting Truth Win. I don’t even know how to do it.

I actually realized recently that perhaps I wasn’t happy because I didn’t know how to be.  I’ve trained myself so much to be miserable that now when I want to be happy, I don’t even know how to be. I focus on the negative all the time. It’s called pessimism, but I prefer “realism”. I like being a “realist” but I am also tired of only seeing the bad in everything. Suddenly “realism” has become “depressionism” because I’ve trained my eye to see all the bad stuff so that I am now blind to the good stuff.

If I really loved, I would have a joy beyond my circumstances. I would have a joy that would not be affected by workload, stress, or even vacation. It would be something beyond that.  Something that sees the truth and the good in everything. Something that rejoices with truth, because it sees truth winning all around. We hear about all the bad stuff, but we don’t really care about the good stuff. You want to know why The News is full of bad news? Because nobody wants to hear about the good stuff. If we wanted to, they’d sell it to us, trust me! But we don’t want to hear the good stuff. That’s boring. Tell me what someone did wrong, tell me a bad thing that happened, tell me what I should be afraid of, this is news! We don’t seem to be wired to want to hear the good stuff, we don’t seem to care When Truth Wins.

I think we need a complete overhaul in our hearts in order to really Rejoice with Truth.

Pessimism has its benefits, but its cons come anytime it keeps me from living in love. If I can’t rejoice with some truth in my life on a daily basis, than I’m really just delighting in evil. I have to take the time to stop and see where Truth is winning in my life, and Rejoice in it.

Week 11: Love Rejoices with Truth

The text here for Weeks 10 and 11 really go together. Week 10 which is “Love does not delight in evil” is followed quickly by “Love rejoices with truth”. Paul was showing here the opposite action of delighting in evil, which is of course rejoicing with truth. They are tied together, but I separated them into two weeks because I think we need to look at both separately to see how they practically work in our lives. Since we’ve already talked about not delighting in evil, let’s look at what it means to rejoice with truth.

Our most fundamental way to rejoice with truth is to read the Word. We hear a lot of versions of ‘truth’ from all kinds of sources on a daily basis. Not only from television or social media, but also in our own minds. I don’t know about you, but I hear a lot of things in my head that I have to choose not to believe in. I can only do this because of God’s Word. When I feel too many doubts and lies rise up in my mind, I go to the Word, where I know truth will wash over me, calm my mind, and bring peace to my soul. We rejoice with truth when we read the word and allow it to soak into our hearts.

Another way to rejoice with truth is to be genuinely happy for someone else’s gift. Let me explain. Someone with a spiritual gift is walking in truth when they exercise it. They are bringing something from heaven down to earth, which is what we should be praying for every day (remember Jesus’s prayer?). When we’re jealous of someone else’s gift, or we don’t appreciate it, or even dismiss it, we are not rejoicing with truth - we are snuffing it out (at least in our own hearts), and we do not benefit from this beautiful truth. It hurts when someone is better than me at something, or gets more attention for it, but I can rejoice in their gift anyway, because it’s from God, and because I am able to receive something from God through that person…once I get over myself.

My favorite way to rejoice with truth is worship. In worship, we are singing and exulting in truth. It’s setting us free, and God is reminding us that HE is reality, not the blinding world we live in. Isn’t it amazing how worship can bring you into a place where you realize nothing else matters? This is definitely Rejoicing with Truth.

Standing on truth

Another way to rejoice in the truth, I believe, is to Stand On It. It’s easy to believe lies, it’s easy to let evil win in small ways in our lives without even knowing it. Sometimes we find ourselves in situations that can only be explained by realizing that somewhere along the line we’ve missed the mark slightly. Even the smallest veer to the right or left can set a traveler miles away from his destination. When we make small, seemingly harmless agreements with lies, we find ourselves far from where we intended to be. We say things like, “why is this happening to me?” “Why hasn’t God taken this from me yet?” “How long will I have to endure this pain?” Not always, but sometimes, it’s our own fault. We have agreed with and live by utter lies. The best way to let love win in our lives, is to stand on the truth and rejoice in it…even when we don’t see it.

It’s amazing that this has brought me into the next week, “Love Never Gives Up.” In a way, it’s a reminder to keep standing on truth, keep living in love, keep walking without fear. Keep going. Stand on truth. Rejoice. And maybe even…Repeat.

8/16/14

Why is this important?

What is love anyway and why does love not “delight in evil”? Why does Paul feel the need to say this in 1Corinthians 13? Some believe it’s because he’s addressing some major sin issues in the church in Corinth. A man is even sleeping with his stepmother for goodness’ sake and brags about his freedom in it. Paul seems to want to remind us that freedom in Christ doesn’t mean engaging in sin. LOVING Jesus results in being obedient to His word. So if we claim to love Jesus, why aren’t we obedient?

I think sometimes we love Jesus in the sense that we love the way He cleanses us and makes us whole. We feel alive when He comes and touches us, and we know we can’t live apart from Him. But we don’t really believe that He knows best. I don’t know why, but it’s true. We believe IN Him, but we don’t really BELIEVE Him. We kind of live with this question toying at the back of our minds:

“Is following Him really worth giving up everything for?”

Stop and think about your answer. You know in your head that the answer is yes, but really, stop and think about it in your heart. Do we really believe Jesus is worth giving up everything for? Do we really believe the gospel is Good News? Do we really believe it’s the best thing for everyone? If we have to give up something we love in order to follow Jesus, can we really claim HE is worth it?

Can we?

Can you? In your own life, do you really feel like giving up everything for Jesus was worth it?

Until we can answer this without doubt to the deepest part of our core, I’m not sure we can truly impact the world around us. When the world asks why their lifestyle goes against His law, I have to be able to say, “Because Jesus is worth it. There is nothing better.”

We have to believe this wholeheartedly: “Take the whole world, just give me Jesus.”

I have to know the following: You can take EVERYTHING away from me. My loving husband, my kids, my house, my possessions, even my memories, my past, my hopes and dreams, but Jesus can never be taken away from me, and that is really all I need. In life, in death, Jesus is the only thing I actually need. I could have EVERYTHING else I’ve ever wanted, but I will NEVER be satisfied unless I have the Living Water that Jesus offered to the woman at the well. (John 4)

Do I really believe Jesus is the Living Water, the satisfaction for my soul? Do I drink from it daily so that I never thirst?

If I’m constantly thirsty, maybe I’m not drinking the water. If I’m not drinking the water, I can’t tell someone else how important this water is, because I really don’t believe it.

Do you see what I mean?

Maybe I can fool people, maybe I can get them to drink the water even if I don’t know where it is. But eventually, it catches up to me. Eventually I stumble from thirst and exhaustion, I never really knew the Water, and I fall away. You know what happens to some of those people I helped along the way? They see me fall, and they fall too. So maybe I can impact the world around me for a short time, but in the end, I do more damage than good. Eventually, my doubt catches up to me, and when I fall down, I drag many with me.

I don’t want to fall. I want to run this race all the way to the finish line. I don’t intend to trip, but if I do, I won’t stay down, I’ll get back up again. I won’t let evil win. I’ll press on. I’ll dust myself off and try again. (Wow, there are so many songs here.) Paul talks about running the race, training our bodies so to speak, in order to reach the goal. The goal is unity with Christ. And I can run hard and not stop because I truly believe Christ is the ultimate prize.

Do you?

8/11/14

Week 10: Love Does Not Delight In Evil

This seems pretty straightforward. You’re probably thinking you are good on this week. Most of us aren’t actively practicing evil. For the most part, I think this Love Attribute is covering the fact that the law was given for our own good and should be followed. For instance, we shouldn’t be liars, thieves, murderers, adulterers, etc. We shouldn’t delight in these things, meaning we shouldn’t enjoy partaking in these evil activities.

There may be some evil things that you do have in your life that are being overlooked. Like lies for instance. Lying seems to be a pretty serious offense to God, and most people do this regularly or at least occasionally. I’m not here to point out all the ways you could be falling short of God’s Law, I think the Holy Spirit can do that for you. If you are struggling with a serious sin, go to God, seek counsel, and get the help you need to move on in freedom.

With that said, maybe I don’t have a huge debilitating sin in my life, like a pornography addiction, but there are some sneaky ways that I allow evil to slip through the cracks in my own life.

When I feel depression rising over me like an ocean, and I allow myself to sink under the waves, feeling its relief and familiarity, in this I am delighting in evil.

When I choose to let my anger entangle me in chains, and feel fully justified in doing so, in this I am delighting in evil.

When I serve someone with a selfish motive, but convince myself I’m doing the right thing anyway, in this I am delighting in evil.

When I refuse to stop and rest and let God speak to me, in this I am delighting in evil.

When I refuse to get over my pain and move on in my life when a brother or sister has wronged me, in this I am delighting in evil.

When I choose to love myself more than someone else, in this I am delighting in evil.

When I refuse to receive love because I’m too proud or wounded, in this I am delighting in evil.


Any time I let evil win in my life, and make an excuse for it or worse, am happy about it, I am delighting in evil.

I can not let evil win. I have to bring these things to God and have Him change my heart. It’s not about my actions, He has a plan and purpose to change me from the inside out. I can get rid of all the bad stuff, I can do the list of things that I know will make me a better person, but this doesn’t fix the actual problem. The actual problem is my heart, my heart so full of wickedness and delighting in evil, my heart that is being completely transformed and renewed because of the death of Jesus Christ, the blameless and spotless sacrifice. Because of Him, I am made new, I am cleansed, I am free to live and love and walk a life without fear. I am free to let Love Win...In my heart, in my life, in my walk with God and in my relationships with others. Love does not delight in evil, because evil entangles us, and love is freedom.

8/10/14

No Fault Policy

This week has been trying as I’ve struggled with what it means to love in the area of “Not holding a record of wrongs”. How can we actually live like this? How can we actually LOVE like this? It doesn’t make sense. Am I supposed to forget everything done to me? Should the church focus solely on creating a scientific device that can search for grudges or complaints in my mind and erase the information so I no longer feel that way? Obviously, this is not the case. God doesn’t want me to be less aware, but more aware. The more I am wronged, the more opportunity I have to love. So how do I do this?

I woke up today and asked God to show me for the tenth time this week, "Please God, show me something!" He finally responded, or at least I finally heard His response. He said, “NO FAULT”. That’s it. He didn’t explain it. He didn’t expand. He just said “NO FAULT” and I know it was God because it didn’t relate to anything else I was thinking and it came out of nowhere.

NO FAULT.
In New York State, we have a policy for car accidents called No Fault. In an accident, someone can still technically be “at fault” because the police will issue tickets based on who caused the accident, but the person at fault will not be held responsible for the other person’s medical bills. If you are in an accident, and someone else is at fault, their insurance company is not responsible for you. Your own company has to pay your medical bills, which is why EVERY New York driver must have insurance. You have to cover your own butt if you get hurt.

How does that relate to LOVE?

I think not holding a record of wrongs doesn’t mean it’s never someone else’s fault. Sometimes it really is, and the judgment from the higher authority is still there. The ticket may still be issued by God, the ruling may be made. But I can not hold the offender at fault. I am not allowed to demand that they pay my hospital bills, or in other words, pay for my pain. They are not responsible to make up for the pain that they’ve caused me. I need to release this “right” in my heart and mind. I need to instill a No Fault policy in my heart towards those who wrong me.

The beauty of it is this: When I release them, I am released.

It’s the same as the chains I found myself in when I chose to walk in anger instead of love. Unforgiveness, or believing someone owes me a debt, puts me in chains or bindings. I am bound up in such a way that I am tied to the person I won’t forgive.

We think of forgiveness as releasing someone else, but when we forgive, we’re really releasing ourselves.

Love is selfless, so it’s full of grace and forgiveness.

I keep looking at all these Love attributes in the sense that if I follow them, it will be better for all of those around me. And it’s true, it will impact them, but it will also impact me. My life will be better when I walk in Love instead of bitterness, fear, resentment or anger, because I will be FREE.

That’s the point of “Love does not hold a record of wrongs”Freedom.

8/6/14

Week 9: Love does not keep a record of wrongs

Throughout this Love challenge, I’ve been hearing some very difficult lines in my head. They keep repeating to me when I’m upset with someone, when I’m frustrated with my kids, when I’m unsure of what I want in life. They remind me of the Beatitudes or the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5, but in today’s wording.

If Jesus hadn’t come 2,000 years ago, and instead was here today, I think we’d have a few hundred youtube videos of Jesus standing in a parking lot saying the following:

It’s better to be taken advantage of, than to take advantage.
It’s better to be cheated, than to cheat.
It’s better to be abused, than to abuse.
It’s better to be offended, than to offend.
It’s better to suffer, than to cause suffering.


In 1 Corinthians, Paul is addressing some issues in the church of Corinth. One of the issues is the Corinthians bringing each other to court with lawsuits. This is really disappointing to Paul, so much so that he says to them, “Even to have such lawsuits with one another is a defeat for you. Why not just accept the injustice and leave it at that? Why not let yourselves be cheated?” (1 Corinthians 6:7)

Why not let yourself be cheated? It’s better than holding a record of wrong and demanding justice for the injustice done to you.

Ouch. I mean really. I’ve said ouch before, but this one could dramatically change my life.

I’ve been struggling with love because I’m finding that it’s always being the bigger person, always loving someone else more than yourself, always getting hurt but never being offended. I can’t help but wonder if this is really what God wants for us. I truly believe that the gospel is Good News, and that living in love is the best thing for us, and yet, when I look at it this way, it’s a really, really hard pill to swallow. The effort of swallowing this pill would be like trying to fit a camel through the eye of a needle. I’m not sure I can love like that, and I’m not even sure I want to.

I want to fight for injustice. I want to stand up for what I believe in. I want to stand up to bullies. I refuse to accept abuse or negativity.

But I’m not actually sure that’s right.


Do you see my struggle?

In the bible, Jesus only took a physical stand against injustice once, when he flipped the tables over at the temple. He was angry at the money-makers who were exploiting people who wanted God.

But other than that, Jesus didn’t really stand up to bullies. When crowds and mobs tried to kill him, he ran away or slipped through the crowd because the bible says it “wasn’t his time”. But eventually folks, it was his time, and instead of standing up to bullies, not only did he not even try to defend himself (read the conversation he had with Pontius Pilate) he allowed himself to be tortured and killed.

He healed the sick, he fed the hungry, he cast out demons. But even when they brought the adulteress woman to him, he didn’t seem to “fight for injustice” in the way that we think of fighting. He crouched down to the ground in silence, deep in thought, and finally made a soft and very wise comment that caught everyone off guard.

We think we’ve really grasped what Jesus came down to show us. But we’re still looking for an all-powerful king to come down and make everything right, just like the Jews were looking for. Because of this, they actually missed their king when he came.

Jesus seemed to have a more gentle approach that really throws us off.

I think this approach is love.

Think about Psalms, it’s full of injustice. But verse after verse, the writer is crying out for God to come with HIS justice. “How long, oh Lord, will you let me suffer?” “Devour my enemies.” "Make them a footstool underneath my feet." The psalmists were continually calling out to God to fight their battles FOR them, and waiting patiently on Him to do so. There is something here for us.

It’s hard. It’s so different than the way we live, but somehow if we can grasp this, I think we’ll make the world a better place.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, post a comment and tell me what you think.

8/2/14

Little Things That Are Tied To Bigger Things

This week we’ve been talking about how Love is Not Easily Angered. Sometimes we’re impatient, or selfish, or we just don’t love like we should. This results in us being easily angered, offended, or provoked. It may feel difficult, but with the Holy Spirit’s guidance, some exercises in thankfulness, and focusing on the positive traits in the offender, we can usually get past them. But then there are those little things that happen which cause a reaction in us much BIGGER than was warranted. Sometimes, we’re just too sensitive, but other times, there is more going on.

A friend of mine was recently spilling her guts about some things her mom did that totally bugged her. It was driving her crazy. She was upset. She complained about every little thing her mom said, didn’t say, did, didn’t do. From my perspective, the things her mom did weren’t that big of a deal, but the situation was actually causing her a great deal of pain. As we talked, she mentioned a big fight they had a few years ago, which was never really resolved. Bingo. Guess what my friend is dealing with? A wound that never healed.

Sometimes when we’re offended, it hits a deep and painful wound that hasn’t healed yet. Something small could translate to us as a huge offense, “hitting a nerve” so to speak, because we’re actually wounded and bleeding and usually, we don’t even know it.

When we’re initially wounded, we tend to “get over” the pain without actually dealing with it. You know the old saying, “time heals all wounds”? Well, I think there is a chance some minor wounds will heal by themselves over time, but in a large wound situation, we need to be involved in the healing process. Ignoring this type of wound does not make it go away. You may, however, forget about it for a time. Think about it like back pain. People who live with back pain can generally function at a normal level. They have a mild amount of pain every day, but they just live with it. They get used to it. But then they go to lift that box, or kick that ball, and BAM, the wound has brought itself to the surface. "Remember me?" it asks. It never really healed. It just went behind the scenes for a while.

This happens with our deep emotional wounds, too. We don’t really know how to get through them. We let them scar a bit, and as long as they’re not bleeding everywhere and on everyone, we move on. But God loves us too much to let these wounds go unnoticed. God uses people and circumstances in our lives to remind us of the wounds that aren’t healed yet. He loves us, and wants the best for us, and doesn’t want us to live forever with the same wounds. He is the Perfect Healer, the Doctor for our souls. But remember, He is also patient, so He will allow you to hold on to your wounds again and again. He will wait, scalpel ready, for us to say, “Doc, you’ve gotta do something here. This hurts too much, and too often. I’m ready.”  Until then, He’ll allow situations to remind us of the pain, all in the hopes that we will bring this pain to Him so He can help us truly heal.

As I deal this week with being impatient and easily angered, or easily brought to tears, I’m asking God to come in and heal the places that hurt too much. I don’t want to be easily offended, I want to walk in forgiveness and really love my God and the people around me.

Sometimes we don’t want to let God heal us, because we want to stay angry with someone. They really deserve it, don’t they? But remember, when we choose to walk in anger, we end up ourselves in chains.

I don’t want to be in chains. I want to be free. So I don’t want to walk in anger and pain, I want to walk in love and forgiveness.