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."
1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 (The Message)
We have our work cut out for us to achieve any one of these ideals of Love for even a moment on the smoothest day. In fact, too many smooth days cause us to become overly finicky and, as my Daddy says, "nit-picking." People don't feel loved when we scrutinize their faults or catalogue and file their wrongdoings. God's Word says - "Skip the interrogation. Don't look at the evidence. Quit trying to discover motives. The people you've placed under your bright investigative light are human and, therefore, 'guilty.' It doesn't matter how guilty or guilty of what, I call you to love them anyway, love them in spite of the guilt. It's what I do for you daily." "He who sows righteousness will have a sure reward."
Proverbs 11:18
"Call to Me, and I will answer you,
and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know."
and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know."
Jeremiah 33:3
Father, stop the snide little voices in our heads that comment and criticize. Replace the putdowns with prayer; the lists of reasons not to love with lists of ways to love; the calculations with kindness. Help us draw the line thickly and firmly between trying to understand someone and judging them. Take away the badges we've given ourselves and help us understand there are no "good cops" in Your kingdom.
In the Name of Jesus Who loved us all in spite of the "guilty" verdict
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