Impatient

P 2901 Walking in love means …

/ DVH

… that I will probably never get my own way! According to 1 Corinthians 13, this kind of heart attitude is now my NEW priority… Now I will need to rely upon God to help me be patient in the middle of unpleasant circumstances. The Lord has promised He will help us. There is no reason to be envious of your fruit, because I’m way too busy growing my own! At the same time I will cultivate a caring concern for your well-being, while I’m putting my own needs on His altar. Also I no longer want to keep records of all the dumb things you’ve done!

Pardon me a minute, now I need to dash off and look in His mirror, (His Word) and see if there is any chance my reflection there backs up what I just said! Meanwhile, fake fruit looks a lot like the real deal nowadays, until you take a bite out of it! Here’s an interesting side note: fake fruit is too shiny. Just like those fake plastic smiles we slap on when somebody has stepped on our heart for the 15th time and we lie and tell them, “Oh I’m OK, really!” It’s a wonder that my nose isn’t longer than Pinnochio’s. Why do we do that? Here’s my answer … a lack of humility. An aversion to correction and connection, plus I’m deathly afraid you will continue to tell me the truth about myself … and… I don’t want to hear that, thank you!

Here is my point for today, this life is constantly taking bites out of us – our response to those bites is a much better thermometer or diagnosis, than even any reflection could be. Instead, now we want to make His Word flesh in our lives – that happens when we do it to obey Him. Living like Jesus’ told us to, means we learn to be quiet when someone else is utterly wrong and we can prove it to them but instead we choose not to do that. We won’t even brag about the fact that we’ve resisted temptation, because we know, that the Holy Spirit helped us through it. 

Let’s be clear — it is not our behaviour that is at fault – it’s our belief system. We use our experiences to validate what we believe, instead of His Word. This side of the cross we need to believe in His love IN US more than we believe the lies that flourish around us. I can’t do anything without Him, because I know I will dive straight back into looking after ME. I can make pretty good excuses for doing that. Sadly, sometimes we keep right on using our own understanding, instead of acknowledging Him in all our ways.

We must continually revisit truths from the bible. looking for things for us to apply into our lives. Jesus did all this work for us, all by Himself, at Calvary …once and for all! If I give you a brand new house with everything you ever personally wanted or needed in it, and you still chose to continue to live in falling down rented digs – because you are too proud to say “thank you” — whose fault is that? The Lord has already deposited everything we will ever need to be transformed, in our forever account.We just need to learn to live in forever, instead of the immediate. Otherwise the immediate takes over.

Romans 4:20–25: “Yet he (Abraham) did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for US, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” 

Those words: ‘fully persuaded that God had power’ …matter. We’ve met SomeOne Who is not like anyone else we’ve ever met. He doesn’t just tear up any record of our sins, at the same time, He deposits His love, righteousness, goodness, compassion, mercy, loving-kindness etc. inside of us. We already have whatever we need for this way of life. Jesus did not just empty out the bad, He is in the process, with our co-operation, of loading in the good. Abraham believed God and He acted on His belief, and God said: Now that’s righteous.”

Now we choose to stop doing things the way this world does them, and we ask Him how He wants us to handle everything that comes our way. Loving others is our permanent focus. Instead of asking the Lord to make you patient, (generic wish thought) you and I ask Him – ‘Who am I being impatient with, Lord?’  (Specific attitude check.) And we don’t argue with whatever He suggests, even if it happens to be someone we can’t stand! We go to them and humble ourselves. If we wait for that other person to deserve it … it will never happen! 

LOVE ACTS. It is unafraid of the consequences. Walking in love means my whole life changes! Bless ya 👋

P 2723 The one word that changes everything!

/ DVH

This morning when I prayerfully thought about what I wanted to write about today, I realised that a great deal of what I have previously said over all these years, that can be accomplished by simply walking in love.

1 Corinthians 14:1a says:“Make love your aim …” I’ve often found myself wishing that there was a full stop right after those four powerful words. In fact, I don’t think we can read the bible without remembering LOVE WAS GOD’S AIM WHEN HE WROTE IT! In another version, the same verse says:“Earnestly pursue love …”  In another it says: “make it your great quest …” 1 Corinthians 13 is titled … the WAY of love. Sometimes I think we can get so enthusiastic about using methods and acquiring knowledge, as well as implementing this and that, we can quickly forget Jesus exhorted us to be a people with a child-like attitude. Matthew 18:2-4 says:

“He (Jesus) called a little child to Him, and placed the child among them. And He said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

So did you get that? Grown ups don’t qualify. Knowledge and power actually mess with our obedience levels and simplicity. As a child I can remember wishing I could hurry up and grow up because grown-ups had power, and I had none. Hmmm. Many many years later I can see the error of that thought, but it took me a while.

So what do I mean by walking in love? Here’s what that means for me, I often ask myself the question …is it love? You know sometimes things are expedient, but there’s no love in them. In our hurry hurry rush rush world, which always seems like it must run full speed ahead at all times, we can do things that are not love, because they are easier. We might even justify them by saying: it is not natural to respond with love!  Ya might like to think about that thought… because we are supernatural people now. Yet it seems far easier to shout, grumble, and find fault with someone else, than to question yourself… but ….

… what would LOVE do? 

Did you notice how I just left that line there all by itself?? That’s because it is important. We really can’t fit love in around the edges of our busy lives. Loving God and others IS our life now. So how do you love others easily? Here’s my answer – you choose, over and over and over again, to die to yourself. The self is a major factor in most of the wars, evil doings, illegal operations, and appalling treatment that we have all perpetrated toward other human beings. A whole lot of sin starts with Me thinking about ME and mine and what I want.

Now if you are wondering what kind of love I am talking about? Then 1 Corinthians 13 supplies us with the answer and a perfect description. If you like to memorise verses, that’s a great one to memorise. Sometimes I ask myself these questions: Was I impatient, not allowing someone else to have a learning curve and forgetting that I often need one? Was I unkind, hurting someone else to make my point? Was I envious, because someone else has managed something better than I could? Was I boastful, full of myself, or just plain rude. 

Did I insist on my own way above the needs of others? Was I irritable, did I bring up the past, because of my own harboured resentment? Was I finding my jollies by pointing out someone else’s sin? Did I put the truth aside to make sure my POV was more important than anything else? Have I celebrated someone else’s downfall because I don’t like them?

Do I personally love the Lord’s revealed truth? Is it more important to me to feel good about myself than to help someone else see the best in themselves? Have I forgotten to hide myself under the overwhelming love of God? He knows how to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, and how to endure all things. Jesus is my perfect illustration of what love in action looks like. And the Holy Spirit is my Helper, Guide, Companion, Teacher …

The thing I have learnt is that WHEN LOVE COMES TO TOWN, EVERYTHING CHANGES…even me! All I need to do is to pause, ask for His help and do what love would do. Love is never wasted. It can be tested and tried to enhance its purity but it cannot be wasted. That’s because this kind of love is eternal. Instructions come and go, systems fail, but love will last forever, so I need to learn this truth before I run out of time. Love, is the one word that changes everything. Bye. 👋