It's Time to Grow Up! Part Three

This is part three in a study I did on 1 Corinthians 13.

1 Corinthians 13 is basically a study on the selflessness of love. It is a challenge to me asking: What are my motives?

v. 4a: "Love is patient, love is kind"

The best example of this verse in action that comes to mind is an experience I had during a Women's Ministry planning retreat a couple of years ago. Our leader really embodied the heart of this verse as she displayed such a Godly response and attitude toward the nine different personalities spending the weekend together. I will always remember the grace with which she led our group those couple of days and will hopefully be able to apply her wisdom to my own life.

One thing that really stood out to me was that she said we weren't on any kind of a solid, rigid schedule. There were some things that we needed to accomplish and she was the type of person to just get in there and get the job done, but she couldn't expect everyone else to be that way. She was so patient with all of us--and very kind--as we found all kinds of distractions and off-topic discussions to engage in. What started out one morning as a planning session, quickly turned into a "tell me your life story" session and was followed by a 3 or 4 hour shopping break. Our planning session that was originally "scheduled" as an all-day thing turned into a quick hour and a half thing late on the night before we left. It was obvious that her response to us came from a heart that desired to wait on God and let him have control--not an insecure and fearful heart that needed to be controlling. This is a concept that I really need to apply in my own life.

There are nine different personalities in my home. Though I can take full responsibility for my own self, and I have a good deal of control over the kids at this point, there is one here, my husband, whom I have no control over (though I've desperately tried!!). When I want to see change in my relationship with my husband, I need to be patient and trust that the Lord is working on us both. God has a process, just as much as he has a plan, for our lives. I need to wait on God more and to be still and trust that everything is always in his hands.

Sometimes I think on the unkind things that I say to my kids or to my husband and think that if they ever talked to me "that way" that I'd never put up with it. Again, it comes back to a lack of love and an attempt at controlling the situation. As long as I am trying to manipulate and control, God will have nowhere to move. I am stifling my family and keeping them from growing by insisting I have everything "my way". I'm sure everyone on the planet would love to be in complete control of everything that goes on around them--but I know I'd sure be lonely. How would I ever know if someone truly loved me or was happy to spend time with me? How would I know they weren't just doing it because I made them?

That is how the Lord works with us. He doesn't take complete control, otherwise it'd be impossible for us to know whether we truly loved Him or whether we were just taking all the right steps to appease a controlling God. I want to make room for all the personalities in my family to flourish. This can be done in an environment where we are all kind and patient with each other.

It's Time to Grow Up! Part Two

This is part two in a study I did on 1 Corinthians 13.

1 Corinthians 13 is basically a study on the selflessness of love. It is a challenge to me asking: What are my motives?

v.2: "If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing."

If I don't examine my heart to make sure the motive is love, it's all for nothing. I don't think (and I could be wrong) God is going to take away a gift he has given me. It doesn't matter how rotten I am, I will still have the gift because he created it in me. However, Chapter 12 tells me that God's gifting in me is not for my benefit, but for the benefit of all: "but the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all," (1 Corinthians 12:7).

These gifts are only correctly used one way--they are beneficial when covered in love and humility. It is not up to me to decide who is worthy to receive the benefits of the gifts God has placed in me. I can't sit in judgement over my sister or brother and say, "you wouldn't understand" or "you aren't spiritually mature enough for this". (Think: Jonah!!)

I need to freely function in the gifting and faith that God has given me, pouring it out as he directs, and with the love and humility that accompanies God's gifting, the Holy Spirit can use me as his tool.

v. 3: "And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing."

Without love, all my "acts of service" are nothing but reasons to boast. Without love, I can't be giving with a truly sacrificial heart--a sacrificial heart is a loving heart, a selfless heart. Again, what is my motive?

It's Time to Grow Up! Part One

A couple of years ago, I did a study on the first few verses of 1 Corinthians 13. While going through an old journal tonight, I was reminded of how much it blessed me and thought I'd share some of it here.

1 Corinthians 13 is basically a study on the selflessness of love. It is a challenge to me asking: What are my motives?

v.1: "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal."

It doesn't matter if I know all the jargon and lingo to sound like a mature, loving Christian; if my heart is not right, if the motive for the words is not to encourage, uplift and bless someone, then all that "Christianese" is just a brassy, clanging noise.

I used to sing on the worship team at our previous church and I'd sometimes find myself getting into "puffed-up mode". Then I'd catch myself and imagine God making my voice sound high, squeaky and off-key. Like the Emperor and his New Clothes, I'd imagine that I was going along on my merry way, thinking that I sounded so wonderful--when all the time, I'd disrupted the entire service with my clanging voice and didn't even realize it!

If I'm not tuned into the Lord, I will never hear or recognize him admonishing me to "add to (my) faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge self-control," (2 Peter 1:5-6) because His divine power has given to (me) all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called (me) by glory and virtue," (v.3).

Without love, virtue, and knowledge of God, I can not be self-controlled enough to turn the glory back to Him and "escape the corruption" (v.4) that is the result of my "lusting" after that glory.