365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 22

This last verse of 1 Corinthians 13 is probably one of the most known: And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. My home, like many homes, has these three words displayed in a decorative way. I picked mine up at a garage sale and was thrilled to get them for only a couple of bucks and got them up on the wall at home as soon as possible. I am so a “word” person so having them on my wall meant so much. It is not only a reminder to me but my family and everyone who comes into our home.  These three words are the core of our Christian faith with love being the absolute central part that everything else revolves around. If something seems amiss in your life or you are feeling stuck, take a look at the core of you and your beliefs. Is love shinning out of your center? Or has it been pushed outward and has sin taken root in your center? Just as the Sun is the key to our solar system and our life on Earth, love is the key to our relationships with each other and our amazing God. Have you ever looked up the word “love” in the concordance of your bible. There are over 300 verses regarding love. Love is the most written about topic in the bible. Love is everything. God is love.

1 John 4:16b God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 9

The core part of who we should be is love. Without love, the rest of the fruits the spirit gives us are nothing. I learned this way back before I met my husband. I reached the bottom and my life was a mess so I sought some counseling. Now counseling when you are working 3 jobs just to survive is a one shot kind of thing. Thankfully, the counselor I saw understood my predicament and how much I wanted to figure out what my problem was. She suggested a book and even gave the copy to me. It was a good jumping off point and my creative side to me took over. I capitalized on an idea in the book and made it my own way. I wrote “I am statements” about myself and than wrote each one on a single sheet of paper and took each paper/statement and on a wall placed them where I felt they were in terms of importance. The center or core is the most important and moving outward less and less important. My problem was a negative statement right in my core. I am a sex object. How that ended up in my core is a long story but to speed up the point of my story, I began a course of positive affirmations to help me move that negative out of my core and off my wall completely. At this time, I also hooked up with a little Episcopal church. Through prayer and words heard at church, I realized my core needed to be what God saw me as. So, I came up with my new core that I would at some point believe. I am unique. I am special. I am Human. I didn’t connect all three to God until later but in the end the core part of me is knowing I am loved by God. Our sermon yesterday was the beginning of a series on Isaiah 9:6 and specifically about the name “Wonderful Counselor”. Our pastor reiterated my belief today that the main thing we need to take from our Wonderful Counselor is that we are loved and accepted.  If you are not feeling this in your core, than get yourself in the Word and pray that God will help you to truly believe in how much he loves you.

1Corinthians 13:1-3 If I speak in the tongues of mean and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I posses to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.