The Greatest Of These Is Love
Faith
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen.” The word of God is clear, we need faith to believe! Faith is something that is lacking in our world today, it is a fable to some. But for those of us who have faith, nothing can shake us! The bible also talks about a measure of faith is given to every man. Also, it describes that we should prophesy according to our faith! This tells me not everyone has the same amount of faith, and we should attain more! Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God! These are scriptures we should know and speak. There are so many more, I challenge you to look up all of the scriptures on faith. Learn and speak them! But at the end of 1 Corinthians 13, we see that we can have “all” faith, but if we do not have love we are nothing. Is faith apart of your everyday life and marriage?
Hope
Hope is an expectation that something is going to happen!! You have to have faith to believe, but then comes hope! Hope says, “I am excited, and planning on seeing that which I have faith for to come to pass!!” You start to prepare for your promise, pray, and have great expectations! “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life!” We are expectantly waiting for the fulfillment and fruit of our promise. Hope is something we all need, we cling to, and we are sick when it is deferred. We press on, and move with expectation, but we are not seeing even hope as the best gift! Where is hope fitting into your marriage today?
Love
“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” Oh how I want to live this everyday! Are we living this in our actions, words, and lifestyle? Do we live this in our marriage? With our families? This is my hearts desire, to love. To Love like Jesus. Do we rejoice in truth? Do we behave rudely? Are we easily provoked?
The Gifts
God is so good to give us His gifts! He loves us and wants the best for us. Loving us with blessings, to edify His saints, and to help us to minister to this lost world. We need His love to make it in this life, in our marriages, and with our friends and family. He says to desire earnestly Spiritual gifts! In this text we see the three gifts Paul focuses on is faith, hope, and love. What gift are you using today in your marriage?
The Greatest
In all we do in this life, to glorify God and His purposes, we need to remember the greatest gift. The greatest of these is love. We are told these three abide, faith, hope and love, but the greatest of the three we need to abide in our lives, is love. It’s greater than any force on this earth. We can get confused on what that looks like and start doing without it. Loving is an action, but it’s also supernatural! It’s a way of life, and a way to live!! Truly live!
Giving
In all we do we can give of ourselves, our money, our time, our lives. If we do it with any other intention than to see Jesus glorified, we are doing it wrong. If we are doing it out of pride, anger, our own righteousness, arrogance, to be seen, out of obligation, we are doing it wrong. It’s the only way for what we do to mean anything. In your marriage today, with your families, with this world, if you truly want to make a difference do it with love, Gods love. His word is true and we can only have peace, and joy when we do it without an agenda. This is a hard thing. We can’t do it without Jesus.
Search
“Search for Me with all of your heart.” This is part of a scripture in Jeremiah that teaches us to seek and we shall find Him when.. we search for him with all of our hearts. It’s in the seeking and searching and that we do it with all of our hearts. If our hearts are consumed with the things of this world, the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye and the pride of life, then when we kneel down to pray, we are not using our whole heart. All of the troubles in your marriage, life, work, and this world begin in the heart. Love comes from seeking, searching, and finding. When our heart is truly His, completely and wholly His and His alone. Until we can do this, we will continue to struggle. This won’t happen until we are caught away or have breathed our last breathe. So let’s start with us and follow what His word says about love. Your marriage is dependent on this!
Prayer
Our prayer for you is this, 1Corinthians 13, to read it, to live it, to become it! Only through prayer, fasting, the word, and crucifying our flesh will we be able to start to live in a place called love. Reach out to others. Be sober, be vigilant, know the days, know the times. Ask for your spiritual eyes to be opened! Ask for the greatest gift to rule your life! Love!!!
Scripture
Monday: Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” What can faith do for your marriage today? Pray God increase your faith!
Tuesday: Romans 15:13 says, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” Hope is living in peace expectedly waiting for the prayer to be answered! Pray today this scripture out loud!
Wednesday: 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 says, “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” Go over each part that starts with love and see how you are doing today in your marriage.
Thursday: 1 Corinthians 12:31 says, “But earnestly desire the best gifts.” Out of all the spiritual gifts we should desire, Paul describes one as the greatest. Pray love reigns in your marriage and life today!
Friday: 1 Corinthians 13:13 says, “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” Let all of these abide in you and let love be number one!
Saturday: 1 Corinthians 1:1-3 says, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body [a]to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.” We can give so much but if love isn’t the reason we need to try again. Pray you come from a place of love today as you give to your spouse.
Sunday: Jeremiah 29:13 says, “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” Let your heart come from a place where love is flowing from time searching and seeking Jesus.
Contact
Please feel free to contact us at janene@happilyevermarried.org and read and share more blog posts at http://happilyevermarried.org
Thank you for investing in your marriage and you too can have a happily ever married marriage!!
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