Let me show you a way of life that is best of all. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
—1 Corinthians 12:31b; 2 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NLT)
The best way to live is with love. His love, alive and forgiving, sets you free to live without needing to get your own way. His love doesn’t get upset easily and doesn’t keep score when someone wrongs it. His love rejoices when truth prevails—no matter how painful that truth is. His love never gives up—never loses faith—is resiliently hopeful—perseveres against all odds.
Do we love this way? So often, we don’t. Life is about our needs and our desires—not those of someone else. Jesus is our greatest example of unselfish love. He gave up His right to live because of unconditional love. To learn to live with His love, we are also called to give up what we consider our rights for the sake of another person. We have to exercise His love in the most trying situations and circumstances. His love stretches us to reach beyond our selfish limitations and forgive someone who has offended or hurt us—to love with His love that held nothing back.
Years ago, I heard someone make a statement that the Holy Spirit has brought to mind at times when self wants to prove a point or strike back. “There is great freedom when you don’t have to make the last word.” If I want to walk in the grace of His freedom, then I need to exercise the grace of His love in my relationships.
Never tire of His lesson of love. The Lord continually sends it because it will take a life time to completely get it. The world doesn’t get it and goes about its selfish way trying to prove one point or another. His love is lived moment by moment in daily surrender—in unselfishness and forgiveness, washing the feet of one who denies that you even care.
His love is never about us. It is about how He loves through us, and sets us free.
© 2018 Lynn Lacher
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