Love Check-Up
And now I show you the most excellent way
1 Corinthians 12:31b
"Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another" (Rom. 13:8). Prepare your heart for praying for your family. Let God search your heart toward them with this love check-up. Love deficit hinders effective prayer, because you are not free to have the mind of Christ who loved all people enough to die for them. Faith without love is not effectual, because faith works through love (1 Cor. 13;2; Gal. 5:6).
Lord, make 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 live in me!
- Love endures long and is slow to lose patience.
- Love is kind.
- Love does not envy and is not jealous.
- Love does not boast and is not anxious to impress.
- Love is not proud or arrogant.
- Love has good manners and is not rude.
- Love does not gratify self nor insist on its own way.
- Love is not touchy or easily angered.
- Love keeps no record of wrongs.
- Love never delights in evil.
- Love rejoices with the truth.
- Love has no limit to its endurance.
- Love always trusts and is ready to believe the best.
- Love never loses hope.
- Love always perseveres and can outlast anything.
- Love never fails nor comes to an end.
Are you loving your family as Jesus does? If not, confess it as sin, repent and receive God's forgiveness and grace (1 John 1:9). The Father's love is our source (1 John 3:1). Jesus is our model (John 15:13). The Holy Spirit makes it real (Rom. 5:5).
Now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love (1 Cor.13:13).