Called to Love

God's definition of what matters is pretty straightforward. He measures our lives by how we love.

Paul writes that even if "I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing" (1 Cor. 13: 2-3).

According to God, we are here to love, not much else really matters.

In this day in age, the word love is so overused and worn out.. He tells us:

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoings, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends...faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. - 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8, 13

Someone once challenged me to something which profoundly convicted me and still does. Take the phrase Love is patient and substitute my(your) name for the word love. (Ashley is patient...) And do it for every phrase in the passage...

By the end, don't you feel like a liar? If I am meant to represent what love is, then I often fail to love people well.

If you put insert in God instead of love, everything is just as it should be, because God is love.

The fact is, I need God to help me love God. And if I need His help to love Him, a perfect being, I definitely need His help to love other, fault-filled humans. Something mysterious, even supernatural must happen in order for genuine, no strings attached, love for God and His people to grow in our hearts.