It's Christmas. YAY! Many people have charity in their hearts at this time of year. People give presents to their family, put money in the Salvation Army box and toys in "Toys for Tots" box, and much more. The "Christmas Spirit" gives us charity. When God sent His son Jesus to a manger, He gave us his best gift, Jesus. So we give, in honor of God's gift, His sacrificial gift. Charity is a sacrificial love. It is the love that God had for us . It is TRUE LOVE. I Corinthians 13 teaches us more about this love and shows us the characteristics of it.
Patience, Kindness, Humbleness...Loving the person who doesn't love you back. Spending time and care on those who never cared for you, while doing it privately so as not to put yourself forward.
1Co 13:5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
More humbleness, more patience and pureness of mind...Sometime I believe we love because the love is returned. We love because it give us attention and "fame". What about the unlovely? Do we love them? Do we get annoyed with those "ones" or are we praying and loving on them? What is on our mind? Are we thinking good thoughts? Are we hypocrites, pretending to love but not really loving them in our hearts?
more pureness of soul and spirit.
This is hard, to be a uplifting, patient Christian whose testimony points others to Christ and Him alone...I recently had a situation where a woman was spreading nasty lies about me. I wanted to go to those people and tell them the truth. However, I shut my mouth, though it wasn't easy, and bore it. This is what God commands of us in his love chapter. We must endure and bear, yet love and bring hope and Christ to others.
1Co 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
You can preach Christ but if people don't see the love, it will be nothing to them.
You may have noticed the picture of the sweet older lovebirds at the beginning of this blog. This is my friend Tori's grandparents. They were both in the hospital recovering from illness when this was taken. They loved in "sickness and in health."
Tori said about them... "I have never witnessed a love like theirs. They have always shown so much Jesus to me. I hope to one day reach the love capacity they have for each other in my own marriage. The kind of love that "bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things..." 1Cor 3:17"
My dear friends..."Have you shown so much Jesus?"...this is TRUE LOVE - rejoicing in the present.
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