Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:01 — 4.1MB)
PROGRAM D-7742
Do you practice love? My challenge to you for 2017 is to make love your theme word for the entire year. That’s what I’m doing because as Christ-followers we are to be rooted and grounded in love. John wrote, “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:18).
So to help you and me put love into action, I have put together a 30-day plan to learn to practice love, based on the definition of love we find in 1 Corinthians 13. It’s a method you can use to keep you focused on growing in love.
For example, the plan includes reading 1 Corinthians 13 every day for 30 days, and then focusing on one aspect of love each day. The first day’s focus is patience, because love is patient. But if you’re like me, patience does not come naturally for you. So, what can you do to learn to practice patience?
Here’s my suggestion for Day 1: Think about who or what makes you impatient, and then pray for that person or that situation specifically. Perhaps it’s a person you work with who just really tries your patience, and because of that, you’ve had some harsh words or at least harsh attitudes and thoughts about that person. But, have you ever prayed specifically that God would help you show patience to this person?
You see, what happens when you start praying specifically like that is that you begin to see that person the way God sees them, and you begin to understand why they behave as they do. That, in turn, helps you to be more patient with them as you look at them through God’s eyes. Praying specifically for that person or that situation will unleash God’s power in you to learn to practice patience. And when you practice patience, you are practicing love! I promise—it works!
