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Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. — 1 Corinthians 13:6-7 Thoughts on Today's Verse... Life as a follower of Jesus is always about love - loving God and loving others ( Matthew 22:36-40 ), doing the things Paul lists here - not delighting in evil, rejoicing with the truth, protecting, trusting, hoping, and persevering always ! Living this always loving way in a fallen world full of self-centered people is a very tough and tall order and sometimes very tough work. Only God is always . But then Christians are fueled to this always kind of love through the Holy Spirit. Paul tells us that "The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us" ( Romans 5:5 ). No wonder this love, true love, Christian love, loving like Jesus is always love - it is God's love, demonstrated by Jesus' sacrifice, and now empowered through us by the H...

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. — 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 Thoughts on Today's Verse... True love does not focus on itself, but on others. Each of these qualities of love - patience, kindness, does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, keeps no records of wrongs - is based on an affectionate, compassionate, and forgiving attitude that regards others as valuable to us, and to Jesus. Rather than placing value only on ourselves and our desires, we remember how Jesus lived and seek to have a heart like his ( Philippians 2:5-11 ). This kind of love comes from the power of the Holy Spirit within us ( Romans 5:5 ; Galatians 5:22-23 ). It is part of the Spirit's transforming us into more JESUShaped people ( 2 Corinthians 3:18 ). The old saying is true: "In the middle of all SIN is...

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. — 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 Thoughts on Today's Verse... Love! In the days leading up to Valentine's Day, let's remember the real meaning of true love ( 1 John 4:8-12 ) and not dilute it with the many sappy expressions of limited human love, oftentimes based in lust rather than genuine love. I am certainly not against expressing our love to others on Valentine's Day, but it can get so sappy, sentimental, and manipulative. Without our motivations centered on why we are expressing love, all "Christian" activities are more motion and commotion than true love. True love is the expression of Chr...

We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. — 2 Thessalonians 1:3 Thoughts on Today's Verse... "Please increase my faith, O, LORD." "Please increase my strength, dear God." "Please increase my wisdom, Father." We often pray for these kinds of things, but when was the last time you prayed asking God to increase your capacity to love, and your congregation's capacity to love others? Can you think of anything more exciting to say about your friends and fellowship than to say, "The love everyone has for each other is increasing, and that love for those around them who don't know Jesus is growing!" Let's pray and act to make this dimension of our love real and noticeable to the broken world that is fractured all around us! My Prayer... Holy God, may your love fill me as I seek to share it with those I meet ea...

"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven." — Matthew 5:43-45 Thoughts on Today's Verse... We often talk about the privileges of being a child of God. We're blessed with things like forgiveness, salvation, an eternal future in glory with him, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and our ultimate victory when Christ comes. One of the greatest privileges we get, however, is the opportunity to act toward those who dislike and even hate us in ways that reflect the character of God as demonstrated by Jesus. Anyone can return hate for hate, but it takes children of God to return a blessing and a prayer of deliverance for their enemies. My Prayer... Father, thank you for loving me when I was still an enemy to you - ungodly, powerless, and a sinner ( Romans 5:5-8 ). Thank you for using the death of your Son to gain my attentio...

Let those who love the LORD hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked. — Psalm 97:10 Thoughts on Today's Verse... Hate - what a bold and powerful word. Jesus does not want us to hate people, not even our enemies ( Matthew 5:43-48 ). However, we MUST HATE evil and the evil one. While balancing our hatred of the evil one with our love for others can be challenging, it is absolutely vital. Evil is here because of the evil one - the champion of hate, lies, murder, and death ( John 8:44 ). We can and must daily pray for deliverance from evil and the evil one ( Matthew 5:13 ). So, when evil rears its ugly head, let's be courageous and oppose the evil one and his work. As we resist the evil one, he will flee from us ( James 4:7 ) as we draw near to God and are strengthened by his presence ( James 4:8 ; Hebrews 10:22 ). Let's choose to be used by God to be redemptive as we pray for those trapped by evil and the evil one...