Love Never Gives Up

1 Corinthians 13:7 (NLT)  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

God never gives up on us.  God’s love never leaves us.  Other people may leave us or just withdraw for a while.  We may even give up on ourselves.  But God never will.  I have to say that the longer I think about that, the more I don’t understand it.  I give up on people a lot and even feel justified in doing so.  Sometimes I feel like I have to withdraw sometimes out of self-preservation.  And I when I fret about my poor ability to keep loving, I often tell myself that God can keep loving long after I stop because after all, God is God and I’m not.  This is true.  But this scripture won’t let me off the hook.  I still feel called to persevering love (and by that, you know by now that I mean loving action).

                The reality is that sometimes I’m “all out of love” (a reference to what you many would find an extremely cringe-worthy Air Supply song).  What I notice about myself in those low moments is that I am not only unable to love the other, but I am also woefully out of touch with God’s love for me.  I also notice that some of the times I have been able to love someone even when it’s really hard have also been times when I felt God’s love the most.  Those two things are connected.  Actively loving others actually draws us more fully into God’s love AND connecting with God’s love helps us love others when it’s hard.  

Today concludes our series on Faith, Hope, and Love.  We will begin a new series tomorrow.  No, I’m not telling you what it is.  You’ll just have to wait and see.  Until then, I love you all!

Question:  Do you think there is a connection between our connection to God’s love and our loving action towards others?

Prayer:  God, thank you for never giving up on us.  Help us to see that there is no one that you ever give up on.  Amen.

Prayer Focus:  Pray for world peace.  I know that’s a cliché’ but there are mounting tensions between nations right now.  The last thing we need right now is yet another war.

Song:  Casting Crowns (w/ Steven Curtis Chapman) Listen to Our Hearts