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4Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.   5 It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].   6 It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.   7 Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. - 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 AMP Our Great God’s Love in us is our measuring stick for life. In our Perfect LORD’s view of me (and you), it is NOT how others may feel about me; rather, it is how I inwardly feel about others that matters a great deal to HIM. HE continually sees the truthful core of our inmost beings - the heart that reveals everything about us. HE is fully aware of our vain imaginations, our eccentricities, our shortfalls, and our get-ups. And yet His great love for us is not dependent upon our performances - good, bad, or indifferent! Do you love like that? Can you fathom the depth of this Truth? Because, until we really inwardly perceive of this Great Love for us - and in us - we will not be able to LOVE as He is and does. Imagine standing alone before the LORD in reverential fear (which is the beginning of Divine Wisdom) and blatant transparency (which is the beginning of Divine Change), just as we EACH will do on that Day! It is not only good practice for ‘the now’, it is expected! And presenting yourself before Him in all His holiness and splendor, ask the following questions: 1.) LORD, do I inwardly rejoice when someone’s sin finds them out? 2.) LORD, do I bear up when there is opposition (either real or imaginary)? 3.) LORD, am I in the habit of being continually suspicious over other people’s motives? 4.) LORD, why do I find myself continually waiting for bad things to happen (when YOU have not given me a spirit of timidity and fear, but a Spirit of Power and Love which makes my mind WHOLE)? 5.) LORD, do I really cave in and fall down at the very first hint of the pressure that you allow to shape me? HE is the only One with the Answers. He is the Answer! Many of our proclivities and touchy attitudes are not a product of our circumstances as much as they are a product of our THINKING. Philippians 4:8-9: For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them].  Practice what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and model your way of living on it, and the God of peace (of [e]untroubled, undisturbed well-being) will be with you. The Spirit of power and love Who makes a complete and peaceful mind (2 Timothy 1:7) enables us to love others PAST THEIR PERFORMANCES. Do my feelings for an individual WAVER based upon their activity or inactivity? Do I withhold my love when they do not conform to my expectations - i.e. my image! Am I growing more loving or more critical? OR am I, because of HIS Spirit’s renewing work within, able to separate the sin from the SINNER as HE HAS DONE? If we desire to seriously assess our relationship with our Heavenly Father, all we must do is look at the condition of our relationships with others. Jesus said in John 14:15: "If you love Me, you will keep My commands”...and in John 15:12: "This is My command: that you keep on loving each other just as I have loved you.” John 15:9: "Just as My Father has loved Me, I too have loved you; so stay in My love.” So, how do we stay in His love? We do so by asking the right(eous) questions and remain willing to accept the right(eous) answers He gives. Only in asking the righteous questions to the Righteous One, will we receive the righteous answers. To daily examine ourselves means to ask the tough questions in light of what delights HIS Perfect Heart (read Jeremiah 9:23-24): HIS LOVE is patient, am I? HIS LOVE is kind, am I? HIS LOVE is not jealous, or boastful or proud, am I? HIS LOVE is not rude or selfish, am I? HIS LOVE is not easily angered and provoked, am I? HIS LOVE (thank you LORD!) keeps no record of wrongs, do I? HIS LOVE does not rejoice at someone’s downfall, do I? HIS LOVE always delights in TRUTH, always believes the BEST about others, HOPES because HE is incomprehensible POWER, and endures with confidence in The Most HIGH God-Creator of Heaven & earth...do I? God’s Word is ingeniously and precisely designed to reveal to us that ‘other people’ are not the problem! WE are the problem. And when we do not ‘look like’ 1 Corinthians 13 [HIS LOVE], we ought not despair one bit nor fall down in a heap of guilt! As HE is simply, lovingly, and firmly applying pressure to our spirits REVEALING to us ‘the thing’ HE is in the process of changing that we might be conformed into the likeness of HIS SON! Remember...HE never condemns us for WHERE WE ARE, but rather HE convicts us that HE may take us to WHERE HE IS! This Great LOVE is what causes Life Abundant to spring forth in us. Stop kidding yourself and begin asking the right(eous) questions.

"Word from Scotland" from Sandy Shaw

How Does God Refill My Emotionally Drained Empty Tank?

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