AATTRIBUTES OF LOVE- Open Heavens devotional by Pastor E.A Adeboye

BIBLE IN A YEAR: Ps 127-132
ATTRIBUTES OF LOVE Saturday, November 13, 2010
MEMORIZE: “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, ” (1 Cor. 13:4) READ: 1 Corinthians 13:1-8 Before embarking on a long journey, the wise traveler would make adequate preparations. As part of your preparations before embarking on a journey into marriage you must have love. Marriage without love at best is nothing but a joke. According to 2 Corinthians 5:14, divine love constrains us. It helps you to be faithful to your marriage vows. It is very strong. It is practically impossible to separate a couple with love for each other.  This is why Satan or the hazards of the Christian race such as persecution, tribulation, hunger, distress cannot separate us from Christ’s love (Romans 8:35-39). Has love run out in your home? The Lord will restore the wine of love in Jesus’ Name. “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). Love could be practiced in truth by allowing it to unfold all its attributes or be limited to just lip service. According to 1 Corinthians 13:1-8, love has certain attributes by which it may be identified. If the love you profess does not tally with these, then it is not divine love. Love is long suffering.  If you are so short tempered and hasty, you are deficient in love.  Love is kind not wicked. It does not envy.  It is impossible to envy the one you love. Envying someone actually means that you hate that fellow.  Do you know that some husbands envy their wives and live with them as with competitors? This is evil! It is not in the character of divine love to be proud or boastful. If you feel too big compared with your spouse, it is as a result of absence of divine love. True love condescends to the humble level  of the one being loved. Love does not behave strangely and is unselfish. If you love your husband, you will not be thinking of how to get him to take care of all the needs of the home when he cannot cope, while you spend your income on yourself. Where there is love, your attention would be on satisfying your family with all your resources irrespective of being the husband or wife. The one in love continues to give. If you are always on the receiving end of love, then you have stopped loving. It is difficult for you to be angry with the one you love. If you easily get angry with your spouse, you do not love the fellow.  If you love, you will not sin against your spouse. The one in love is incapable of hurting his or her spouse. Do these attributes of love manifest in your ‘love’? ACTION POINT: Is your love the same as the love described in 1 Corinthians 13:1-8? If not begin to work towards it.  Show love towards the illiterates, eradicate illiteracy today, support www.10millionexercisebooks.com project today