Love is … I

“Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love” 1 Cor.13:13

Love is a person – God is love. Love starts from the Person of God in your heart. If that does not exist, everything you do outwardly will be a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal. “Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love” 1 Cor.13:13. This means that love is the highest expression of life. There are things that we see and say this is love. For instance, a man comes down from his car and goes to open the door for his wife. People see that and say that is love. Of course that is love, I mean if it is genuine and does not end with a punch at the end of the day. But that is not how God sees love. There are ten things that God shows us in the Word and this is love. Ten of them are listed in 1 Cor.13:1-13 [please read].

#1. Love is patient. In your horizontal relationship, when you demonstrate patience, people can say this is love. God is love and as believers the life of God is in us. So the fruit of love should show through us. When we are patient with other people, we are manifesting our fruit of love through patience, and we are showing the love of God. The truth is that some of the most impatient people are the most ungrateful people. Why, because they see who they are in other people. They see an amplification of who they are in other people. So check people you are impatient with, that is a bigger version of you. And this is true a lot of the time, I can give you several examples. For instance you know how you were before you got born again? Even after you gave your life to Jesus, years passed, nothing changed. Now you see someone that is struggling to follow God and you are so impatient and so judgmental. Something is wrong with that. You are seeing a bigger version of you and so you are kicking against yourself. But Love is patient! And we get impatient with people because we spot very quickly the things that we are accustomed to. The church must show love, we must be patient with one another. While on a project in Port-Harcourt, a friend that was also there at the time told us [myself and a mutual friend], how his wife had upset him and he was going to deal with her in Lagos. Interestingly our mutual friend, with a strong prophetic gifting, told him God was saying treat your wife the same way you want me to treat you. God had been merciful to him but he was bent on dealing with his wife. But after he heard that, he became patient. Love is patient.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, grow love in me through acts of patience towards others, in Jesus Name.