This posting is slightly modified from DAY 2 of The Love Dare:
For Christ's LOVE compels us....
-2 Corinthians 5:14 "Anger can fuel hatred in a man's heart until he feels like attacking his enemy. But love can spark kindness to his heart so he lays down his life for his friend. Selfishness can drive a woman to tighten her grip and hoard her resources. But love can inspire her to open her hands and give sacrificially. Love is the purest and most powerful motivator. It gives courage to a coward, seldom to a fool.
When love invades your heart, you are empowered to endure deeper pain, willingly pay a greater cost, and risk your reputation for the sake of another. Love causes a soldier to lay down his life for his country, a mother to pray relentlessly for her child, and a gracious God to send His only Son to die for our sins. LOVE is that powerful.
Paul the apostle endured beatings, intense persecution, and hardship throughout his life. He did it for one reason alone: "Christ's love" compelled him. If love began fueling your decisions, what would it drive you to do in your life??"
I did a sermon a while back, challenging the congregation to read 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 and replace the word "love" with their name...example: Love is patient and kind; Gaddy is patient and kind.... does that match up? Is that reality? What about for you?
As we come to the time where we will celebrate the coming of our King Jesus, the ultimate example of love, let us continually ask God to make the practice of LOVE a reality in our lives!
Love...a powerful yet simple four letter word. I believe that Love has many meanings and many forms it can take. There is unconditional Love, conditional Love, and friend love. To me, in this world, there isn't much unconditional love. You have it from your mother, from your lover, and from your creator but not much more. So to replace my name with passage is easy in some parts but harder in others. I guess that is God telling me the places I need to work on. Overall I will say that Love, as in the human form of love, will make anybody (especially men) do very crazy and sometimes foolish things.
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