“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:2
When my husband and I were married, I thought I came to the marriage a spiritual giant that could teach him so much about the Lord. Since I had been saved longer than him, I was planning to teach him how to win spiritual battles in prayer, how to prophesy, how to quote scriptures and how to storm the gates of heaven and get God to move. I was so impressed with myself and my “spiritual growth.”
…until
I kept coming across situations where I had to love people. I kept facing situations where I needed to be patient, kind, believe the best, and forgive. I would fail the love tests almost every time.
All of my faith and all of the Bible knowledge I had didn’t mean anything because I didn’t know how to love the way God had instructed me to. He helped me to locate where I was spiritually, and little by little and day by day, the Lord began the process of planting His seed of love in my heart and causing it to grow. He began to show me through His Word and my husband’s example, how to lay down my life for others, how to accept people for who they are and how to love them through the challenges they faced.
My sister, it doesn’t matter how much you can pray if you don’t know how to love people in a way that pleases God. It doesn’t matter how many Bible verses you can quote verbatim if you don’t know how to treat people right. A sign of real spiritual maturity is in your ability to love like Jesus.
Challenge: Take a closer look at 1 Corinthians 13 and see how well you measure up to God’s standard of love.
Prayer: Father God, thank you for speaking directly to my heart. I need you to teach me how to love. I haven’t been doing a good job at it. Plant your seed of love in my heart and cause it to grow and produce visible results in my life. I want to grow spiritually. I desperately want to learn your ways of doing things. Help me Lord to be more like you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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