Love (Part 3)

This week continues our series on love. If you have not already read part 1 and part 2 please take the opportunity to do so before reading today’s post.

As we learned from part 1 God is love, but what exactly does that look like? The most well-known place in scripture to go on the topic of love is 1 Corinthians 13.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Love is patient.

The definition of patient is - “bearing provocation, annoyance, misfortune, delay, hardship, pain,etc., with fortitude and calm and without complaint, anger, or the like.” (dictionary.com) So, in real life, this means love is able to keep cool in moments when we want to hurl out a piece of our mind wrapped in all manner of disrespect. Patient love does not look like us honking our horn at the elderly person lethargically crossing the street as if they were purposely trying to make us later for work then we already were. There is nothing lovely about that scenario at all! Patient love does, however, mean, that we are to pray that this elderly person gets to where they are going safely and that the Lord touches their heart along the way in the very moment we want to honk our horn at them. When we feel our blood pressure rising in a particular situation our response needs to be measured against the barometer of love. Ask, is what I want to do patient love? If there is any hesitancy in our ability to answer “yes” then we need to rethink our response before it comes out as an impatient response. Can I just be honest here, I am not good at stopping and taking the split second needed to measure my response against the barometer of love. This is one area that I need God’s grace for sure!

I am so thankful that God’s love is patient with us. He is perfect, His love is perfect, and He does not make mistakes. I have always envisioned Him watching me go around the mountain for the 100th time and then feeling like He is banging His head against a wall all while saying, “when is she going to get this thing figured out?” The problem with envisioning God this way creates a huge discrepancy in the character trait of love being patient. If I envision God as being frustrated with every sin I find myself so easily entangled in, then I have just put an extremely limiting factor on God’s ability to love me patiently. Does my sin sadden His heart? Absolutely it does! As parents, it breaks our hearts to see our children fall into patterns of sin too. The difference here is that God will wait as long as it takes for us to continue to go around that mountain until we actually want to change. Patient love allows us to learn and grow. Impatient love will come in, take over and then we will find ourselves no better off than before. So, yes it saddens my Father’s heart to see me entangled in the same sin for the 100th time, but God also knows sometimes it may take me 101 times of fighting with the same old demon until I surrender and allow Him to change my heart. What we need to desperately understand, is that God NEVER leaves us or forsakes us (Hebrews 13:5). He is never going to give up on us! His love is patient. Patient enough to outlast our impatience and our stubbornness! Look at Jonah, God was willing to wait until Jonah was ready to surrender his heart to the Lord’s plans and purposes. We are no different. God’s love is patient with us. He desires to see us change. If that means 101 times around the same old mountain, then so be it.

Love is kind.

When a person is kind their very character will naturally look to the goodwill of others. They do not look at their own interest, but rather they attend to the interest of others. (Philippians 2:3-4) They desire to see others grow, learn and flourish. God’s very nature is kindness. He always has our best interest at heart. I thank God he looks at me with love that is full of kindness.

Lord, I thank you that your love is patient and kind. I pray that you help us to be full and overflowing with love that is patient with others especially in those moments when we are beginning to feel frustration trying to take over. In those moments may you remind us of the all the times you showered us with your loving patients so that it may move to be patient toward others. May our moments of frustration be turned into opportunities to show loving kindness.  Thank you for being so patient and kind to us. In the precious name of Jesus, we pray.

To visit other posts in this series please visit the Love series page.