I Corinthians 13:4-8a
“Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant, It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails”.
Today we will write about how love does not seek its own benefit. First off, most of us start our day off by going to work. We have a task and we proceed towards it. While we are doing that we bump into others doing the same thing. This is where love comes in. We are interrupting each other. Love allows the other to go first.
As we do this, God changes us. He gives us peace, He allows us the time to get our task done and the anxiety that drives us to get our way diminishes.
Some verses come to mind. “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS”, (Matthew 11:28,29). Learning to love is learning of Him. We are following His example. His whole life was about serving and loving others.
What a great concept, when we love others and put them first, we find rest for our souls. The world says, “Me first”, yet they are all bound up with anxiety, visiting their therapists. It is so nice to go God’s way. We’re on that path with Him. What a privilege.
Matthew 16:24 says it a different way, ‘Then Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”‘ Denying ourselves is “not seeking our own way”. Then He refers to taking up our cross. It’s an instrument of death. We are putting to death our selfish nature. It also means bearing the burdens in our way. That burden may be parts of ourselves or it may be having difficult people or circumstances in our lives. Some things are our burden to bear. In all this we have content hearts and grateful natures.
Thank You, Lord for the way of love. It’s Your pathway that You call us to. You teach us to love as we don’t seek our own way. You give us Your peace in the process. Thank You.