| Photo by Pablo Heimplatz on Unsplash
How many have ever heard the statement, “Love makes the world go round and round?” Love is the key to every single relationship in the world. Love is needed in our relationship with God! “God is Love.” God loves us so much that He sent His One and Only Son to die on the Cross for our sins! God wants us to return that love to Him, by loving Him with all of our hearts, soul, mind and strength.
Love is needed to be healthy as an individual! We need to know love and be able to love ourselves. Lord is needed in every marriage, family, relationship, Church and in our city and world! We need love because love is the key that unlocks the blessing of God!
Paul wrote about this in 1 Corinthians 12: 31 – “But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.”
Paul tells the Church – we need to desire the Gifts of the Spirit, the talents, the ministries that we need in the Church. Many people are desiring the gifts, titles, trophies of following Jesus.
But then Paul says: “I will show you a still more excellent way.” And then He writes 1 Corinthians 13 – the Love Chapter. We need the Gifts of the Spirit but everything we do must be balanced with love! God’s love – agape Love. A love that is unconditional, like the love that Jesus has for you and me!
Today, we need to desire the gifts of the Spirit, but we also need to pray that we will live and love like Jesus! What good is a gift if we are not loving God and loving people!
Our prayer should be Lord: I desire the Gifts of the Spirit, but I also need You to empower me to love like You!
Love is the most excellent way! How are we doing?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Pastor Ronald Squibb has been the International Christian Center (ICC) Lead Senior Pastor at Staten Island, New York, since 2011. He draws on many experiences from his over 40 years as a pastor and from significant emotional experiences.
His new book, Following the Journey with Jesus, which he co-authored with Daniel McNaughton, was recently published and is receiving rave reviews. The daily devotion appears in this publication.
