Day 5
Memory Verse: I John 4:18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
Read I Corinthians 13
Finally, a look at the love chapter! The encouragement and admonishment contained in this chapter written by Paul to a church that was full of strife and bitterness and arrogance is a bit overwhelming. The verses that get me everytime are seven and eight. “(Love) always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”
You see, my love fails often. I don’t always think the best of people. I can forget to trust even the Lord who has earned my trust. I give up easily when it comes to loving difficult people in difficult times. But His unqualified love NEVER FAILS.
While I was growing up, whenever my daddy prayed, he began with the words, “Father, thank you for loving us…”
It took me becoming an adult to realize how often he repeated these words, and even longer to understand what a miraculous thing it was for my dad to not only pray but believe this truth! You see, my dad never truly experienced love from his earthly father. He never knew what it was like to have his dad want to spend time with him or to be proud of his accomplishments. He confessed that growing up, his greatest desire was to know and experience the love of his father. But my grandfather’s love always failed him.
Who knows why my grandfather did not, or maybe could not, show my dad the love that he craved. Perhaps it was modeled to him that it was a weakness to love. Or maybe it was because he did not recognize that he had received love himself. But I do know that many who have grown up feeling unloved become men or women who neither recognize that they are loved, nor know how to give love to others.
So you see that it is a miracle that my dad’s every prayer was an acknowledgement of the Lord’s unconditional and unqualified love for him.
And perhaps the greater miracle was that he always made a point to let me and my siblings and my kids know just how much he loved us.
I remember my dad, who was also a pastor, preaching a sermon when I was a teenager. He had sought the Lord for a new revelation and specifically asked the Lord what was the one thing that He wished His children knew about Him.
God gently returned the question, “What is the one thing you want your children to know about you?”
My dad answered immediately, “I want my children to know that I love them, all the time, no matter what!”
And the Lord responded, “That is what I want My children to know about Me, as well!”
I John 3:1 ”Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!”
There have been times in my life that I have feared what my future holds and how long it would last; when I have doubted the Lord’s plans for me and whether I have the ability to fulfill them; when I have feared my own lack of strength and faith. But I have never doubted The Lord’s love for me. This is the greatest gift my earthly father gave me – the gift of the knowledge of the greatest gift my heavenly Father gave me – His love.
And my father’s second greatest gift was the gift of his own unqualified love. My daddy is gone now, but I strive everyday to show the unqualified love that he demonstrated to me to everyone I come in contact with.