Love… // 1 Corinthians 13:7

Today’s verse comes from the Apostle Paul’s famous writing on the nature of love. We see that love is the personification of God’s character, and the attributes of God stem from there. Verse 7 shows us that love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. That description might be a far cry from how you feel about your daily character, but it perfectly depicts the the way God wants us to hold onto Him as we engage the world. We bear all things, helping others with their burdens and we find our burdens are lighter, too (Galatians 6:2). We believe that Jesus gives us the power to continue His work and even do greater things…not that our work will be greater, but we are able to weave our lives with others and go places in ways thanks to travel and technology that Jesus didn’t have at His disposal during His earthly ministry (John 14:12). Then, we hold onto hope, because it does not disappoint and anchors our soul (Romans 5:5, Hebrews 6:19). We are by no means immune to the problems of the world, meaning we all must endure the difficulties we’ll face. Jesus said that following Him will put us at odds with all the nations, but salvation comes to those who endure (Matthew 10:22). Our verse gives us a great framework for burden bearing, believing in the work of Jesus, hope that holds us together when it feels like everything is falling apart, and enduring until He returns. Let’s make Jesus’ love the animating force of our lives!