Love

“But earnestly desire and zealously cultivate the greatest and best gifts and graces (the higher gifts and the choicest graces). And yet I will show you a still more excellent way [one that is better by far and the highest of them all--love].” (The Amplified Bible) 1 Corinthians 12:31  

February is Valentine's Day and we start thinking about love. It is really nice to think about the love of a spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend in celebrating Valentine's Day. There are many ways we can show love to others besides our significant others.

I would challenge you to think about what God has to say about love. First and foremost, any love we feel comes directly from God. Without God's love we wouldn't have any kind of love in our lives. God's ultimate, unconditional love shows through in the creation of each of us and in giving the life of his son to save us from our sins.

Love is the greatest thing in this world. 1 Corinthians 12:31 teaches us on our spiritual priority list that love should be number one. We need to develop the fruit of love by practicing loving others by studying love and praying about love. We learn in Galatians 5:22, 23 that God's Holy Spirit makes available to us love – which is one of the nine fruits of the Spirit.

Paul urges the Corinthians to covet gifts that would best benefit Christ, not themselves. He also explains that the gifts must be done in the love of Christ, not self. He goes on in 1 Corinthians 13 to tell us what love looks like. If you haven't read it in a long time, read it this month.

“God is love, so when we walk in His love we abide in Him Because we walk in God's love by receiving and expressing it, we should not deceive ourselves, into thinking we can love God while we hate other people.” 1 John 4:20

Love is the best thing that we can connect our life to. Love not only blesses others, it also blesses the one doing the loving. All of us need to become students of love, and excelling in this most important quality of all – love. Let us spread God's love throughout those we come in contact with this year.

“By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:35
“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

God Bless!
I pray God changes me everyday to continue being His Servant!
In Christ's Love
Debbie Ippolito