All right we’ve all got them. You know those people that we try and “control” in our lives. Some it might be our friends, for others it could be those “no-good” husbands or those drive you crazy teenagers! You know those people that are constantly doing wrong and we need to fix them and make them perfect so that they don’t screw up their lives? Yeah we all have them. All those people that we need to “fix” and make better.
But did you know it’s not about US fixing them? Did you know that we as small, infinite tiny, human beings can never do as much as God can do in a situation or person’s life?
Our lives are not about making the “perfect scenario” around us. Sure it would be great to have things go so well, all of the time, that we never have anything to worry about. But then we would never exercise the gifts that the Lord has given to us.
Did you know that God wants us to love?
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Some of us can quote this scripture quite easily. But have you ever taken the time to go through each verse line by line? There is much meaning inside each of these words.
“Love suffers long and is kind”
I wonder how many marriages would be saved today if husbands and wives would make love suffer long, instead of giving up as soon as they “suffered?” How many teenagers would turn back away from rebellion if they had just ben shown love instead of anger and contention? Or what if we traded in our meanness and spitefulness for kindness?
“love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;”
If we truly loved, we wouldn’t envy what we don’t have. We wouldn’t walk around, especially to our unsaved spouses or children that we are better than them. We never would have to think that we “knew it all.” We would just be content knowing who we are in Christ and where we were in our walk with Him.
“does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;”
Sometimes we are more prone to treat strangers better than our own loved ones. Things that we would never say to a stranger, we blurt out almost haphazardly to our own. We must think about what words are coming out of our mouths. The bible says that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Whatever types of things are in our hearts, proceed out our mouths. Even if it is a slip up. That just means that deep down, there is still a root of anger or bitterness towards something. When we don’t seek our own agenda’s we will walk in love. When we seek God’s agenda and we trust him and have faith in Him, we don’t feel the need to “control” things, we let God do them. Even if we think we know what God’s agenda is for someone else –smile. Evil is the opposite of love. If we are supposed to walk in love and truth, according to the bible there should be no evil in our hearts.
“does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;”
We as Christians should never rejoice when someone else sins. Seems easy enough right? Sometimes when someone has hurt us or has done wrong to us, deep down we may have that root of bitterness in our hearts and think that “they are gonna get theirs!” But we shouldn’t be rejoicing that way, we should be hopeful that those people will turn from their ways. People are lost souls. They have closed their ears and shut their ears to hearing God’s truth. They know not what they do. Jesus tells us to “forgive them.” We should pray for our enemies that they would see the light and God’s truth. Guess where a good place that is to start with…..in you!
“7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things”
Seems the Christian way has to put up with an awful lot
- Bearing all
- Enduring
- Believing
- Hoping
But if you look to the non Christian they could say that they do the same things…….they bear all their problems, they believe and are hopeful that what they do can change things and make them better. They try and endure things in their life. But that sounds like an awful lot of stress and pressure to put onto one person. Aren’t you glad, that we as Christians have someone whom we can believe and hope for while we endure things? How much better is it to know that we have someone whom we can turn to in times of trouble? When we recognize that God is love and that we are to be like Him, we won’t have to worry about things of this world. God promises to never leave us nor forsake us. That is a powerful truth!
When we see that love is the way we are supposed to respond and act in this world, we will stop our need to control everyone around us and start doing what God has called us to do…………….LOVE OTHERS.
