Galatians 5:22-23 says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."
First on the list....love. Easy, right? Among all the qualities of God's character produced in us by His Spirit, love seems the most natural, second nature, and easiest to both offer and recieve. Love. Indeed, seemingly the easiest of all qualities to model in so very many moments. Love is there.....in all things. Except when love is hard. And it can be hard, can't it?
It can be hard to love people. Love means handing over the remote control when you would rather keep it, getting up just when you've settled in a nice & comfy spot, speaking in a balanced tone of voice when you would rather scream, opening up your heart to listen to another when we'd rather allow our own feelings to tumble out.
People can be hard to love....when they are picky, critical, unkind, or demanding of us. It is not a big deal to love people when it's easy, but when it's hard, then what? Should we smile submissively and pretend to love.....is this what love looks like? Love is not about being nice for the sake of niceness; it's about being like Jesus.
In the "everything" moments love is a choice. God chose to love us. He didn't have to. He wanted to love us, so He chose to love us even when we don't deserve it. We choose to love others.
One of my favorite verses to help me in the area of choosing to love is 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, it says, " Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."
Love is the fruit that gets us past the "being nice" to the offering of love in everything even when it's hard to love people each & every day.
Lord, help me to grow in this area because there are times when I don't feel like being nice let alone being loving to people. Help me to be like Jesus and choose to love as Jesus does.
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