Love Lessons

I am learning more and more each day what this LOVE is all about. And just as important, what it is not. God has been revealing so much to me this past month i am just shocked. Today when looking up the verses that say "everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial," I noticed a very important literary detail in that verse (which is actually found in 1 Corinthians TWICE-6:12( ¹² “Everything is permissible for me”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”—but I will not be mastered by anything. AND 10:23(²³ “Everything is permissible”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible”—but not everything is constructive).)The detail i failed to notice before was the quatation marks. How foolishly i had previously allowed myself to dismiss them with no further thought. Until today, when i was seeking and God granted me a revelation. Previously, i had thought that it was Paul saying everything is permissible. With taking note of the quotation marks i see that he is citing it as another person (or people)'s words. Are these the words of Christ's disciples who love and cherish Him? or are they of the infants who have only begun to taste the freedom in Christ and choose to abuse it? The best way to use our freedom is in love. Because we are free, we are free to love and to be free from fear because THROUGH HIM we can do all things (phil 4:13), but if we are not going through Him (ie the truth, the Word, love), then what gain is there? Everything must be done in love. And what is this love? Well, I am learning these love lessons. 

John 15:13-Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. Putting others first is an act of love. To do that which is best for them, not to get any glory or any prize for yourself, but just to do it because you love them. To put your own wants and desires, even needs and very life aside for them. I am blessed to be beginning to learn this love with close friends. It is still a conscious choice to choose what is better for them over what i want, but THROUGH JESUS, i am making progress. No longer is it Becky making decisions for what is best for Becky, but Becky seeking God's answers to what is best for the ones i love and following through by the power of Jesus. 

I thought i knew what love was. I thought as long as i was happy and the object of my love was happy, that it was love. Now it is becoming clearer that the love that i experienced before was not for another person but for myself. I was focused on what i could get, how i felt, what i did. Love is not self-seeking (1 cor 13:5).  My focus needs to not be on me, but on the object of my love, whether it be my Savior or my brothers and sisters. How i can build them up. What they need. How to serve and bless them. 

These ideas of love and keeping my heavenly focus brought me to the following verse. Maybe it's just me, but i feel like my "life verse" changes with the seasons of life. All i know is that the following speaks to me in volumes. I identify with the King Nebuchadnezzar, who regained sanity when looking to the Heavens and glorified God. When i look up and refocus on Christ, i too get my sanity restored to me. And when that happens, oh yes, I praise His Holy Name!

Daniel 4:34
At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation