Love in Relationships
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I have been reading through the Minor Prophets lately (the last 12 books of the Old Testament in the Bible) and I’ve been struck by our Father’s desire to bless us. There are themes that keep standing out to me: His desire for us to walk humbly with Him, to listen carefully to Him and do what He says, to love what He loves and to hate what He hates.
The strong language in Zechariah 8:15 and following caught my attention. The LORD shares that He is “determined to bless” …”So, don’t be afraid.” “BUT this is what you must do”:
- Tell the truth to each other
- Render verdicts in your courts that are just and that lead to peace
- Don’t scheme against each other
- Stop your love of telling lies that you swear are the truth
“I hate all these things, says the LORD.”
In relationships, the Lord wants us to speak the truth in love and to discern and draw conclusions that are just and lead to peace. In our hearts, we are not to scheme against each other, nor to plot evil against each other or manipulate in relationships. He loves honesty, integrity, and love in action. As I searched the Scriptures I was led to take a closer look at 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter.
Chapter 13 in 1 Corinthians first speaks of what we are or gain without love. Like other women leaders, I want to communicate well, use my gifts, know God’s secret plans and have a compelling vision accompanied by the wisdom and faith to make it happen. It is clear from this chapter that without love, none of those things matter. If I am the first to sacrifice and give to others – I gain nothing without love.
The characteristics of love demonstrated… patient, kind, not jealous or boastful or proud, doesn’t demand, not irritable, keeps no record of wrongs – love doesn’t give up on people – endures and keeps trusting God – those are qualities I want in increasing measure. All of the circumstances and obstacles in life can be used by the Lord to develop these qualities in me so that I love people, sacrifice myself for the sake of others and learn to speak the truth in love.
In order to grow and become the person God wants me to be and to help others do likewise, I have to grow in love. To mature I have to understand that love is even greater than having special gifting or the faith to move mountains.
Lord, your greatest commandment is for me to love. My gifts, faith, courage, even sacrifice, mean nothing without love. Today, where I find myself in circumstances and in all my relationships, help me to love. Please enable me to speak the truth in love, to love not just as a feeling in my heart but to put love into action, today.
Questions: As you allow the Lord to examine your heart ask Him – Lord, who in my life am I not loving the way you want me to? What steps would you have me take to bring love and reconciliation into a relationship(s) in my life? What could I do today to demonstrate love to people in my life? Is there someone I need to speak truth to today in love?
About the Author Donna Mitchell
Daily audio podcast: A second daily devotional, Learning to Trust the Master, today on the Men’s Devotional Blog
God bless you, Lindy, for your radiant testimony of God’s loving-kindness to you and your husband! Your trust in Him in the midst of such overwhelming challenges is inspiring and a faith-builder to us all! You are so right, that we often claim faith in Christ, but our hearts cling to worldly securities — money, possessions, health, etc. When He is enough, nothing ripped from our grasp can destroy us!
lindy
my prayers are with you and you are so right we must put our trust in Him He will see us through anything.
I am 59+2days and have been a Christian since I was 6 years old. I have MS,and currently our house is in foreclosure.This is the 2nd time this has happened to us. One of the most important things I have learned is not to place value on things. Living in a material world is difficult at best, but I have learned to put all of my hope and faith in our Lord. We can’t forsee the future, too many of us place values on the wrong things, insted of our position in Christ. No matter how difficult things may be if we constantly remind ourselves that we are the children of the LOrd. I am a Stephens minister, and I learned through couseling other people that most of us have the power to know how to help ourselves,but many of us loose focus because we live in a material world and we place our values on what we have rather than who we are. many people think if things look good, then everything is ok,but those who try to look good on the surface then everything is wonderful,but if you take all the things that give the appearance of life is worderful, God is surely blessing me, what happens when all those things are taken away, then you are left with nothing. Once when my husband had lost his job and our house about to go into go nto forecluser,one of my”friends” told me I should leave my husband. The irony in this story is that the finance company told us not to make any more payments that HUD was going take over Well they lost our file for 7 years we deeded the house back to the finance company takeing over, well HUD lost our file for 7 years. We ended up deedig the house back to the finance company and walked away, and no foreclusre appeared on our credit report. The lesson I learned is that always trust the Lord, we can only see life for one day whereas the Lord sees all of our days.Is it hard when the bill collecters are calling, but we just have to put our trust in him. Things can be easily replaced we can only pray and listen to what the Lord is telling us. Sometimes when things are really bad, I have to pray every few miutes. But I know who I am i
Christ and no matter how bad things are, I can only put my trust and faith in him. many blessings, Lindy
we are studing the last 12 books of The Old Testamemt in sunday school and it is so true all that you have written in your devotional thank you for such a timely devotional