Standing Firm in Love

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1st Corinthians 13:13

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
1st Peter 4:8

Hailey from Now All I Know is Grace started a cool project called The Fruit of the Spirits and every month you focus on a particular fruit of the spirit. Last month the topic was love. Later this month we went to D3 youth conference and one of the speakers preached about love. He spoke about the two aspects of love that are important.

1) Love is superior (1st Corinthians 13:1-3)
Paul is not saying other gifts are totally useless but that love beats them all.

I can...
1) have faith that can move mountains (vs.2)
2) be a giver (vs.3)
3) be a martyr (vs.3)
BUT if I do not have love I am still nothing,

Love affects everything you do.

It is #1

2) Love is action - a verb

Love is easier said than done. (can I get an AMEN)

Love is...
1) Patient - slow to anger, slow to offend
2) Kind - gentle, not harsh
3) Not jealous - doesn't burn with envy
4) Does not brag - doesn't think the best of himself
5) Not arrogant - Is humble.
6) Not wrong - acts right
7) Doesn't seek its own - not selfish
8) Not irritable - not agitated
9) Not resentful - love is forgiving. it covers a multitude of sin.
10) Doesn't find pleasure in sin - it finds pleasure and rejoices in truth.

Love...
11) Believes all things
12) Bears all things
14) Hopes all things
15) Endures all things

The speaker told us to think of the areas we could work on in this list. I know I could work on EVERY single area in this list, but I have some I really need to work on. I encourage you to study this list and pray for love in your life.  Pray to God for strength to fight the temptation of hate we face daily. Remind yourself constantly of how you can love more.

Stand firm in love.

bouncing in to say bye,
                                   Bernie