First Corinthians has been a bit of a theme book this month. Paul talks a lot about unity within the body – a particular desire of our team – and so many things have been particularly applicable to me this month that I thought I’d just share some of what I’ve been learning. There’s a whole bunch of great stuff in the first part, but its the latter few chapters that have really been speaking to me lately. Starting with chapter 12, Paul addresses some confusion the Corinthians have been having about how spiritual gifts fit in to the body as a whole. He stresses how important every single member of the church is, and how God equips each individual with particular skills and gifts to benefit the body as a whole – and how nobody is more essential to the operation of the church than anyone else. Clearly the Corinthians have been struggling with this concept that no gift or anointing is more important than any other, and so Paul continues in what is often called the ‘love chapter’ to explain the real way to make use of the gifts God has given us. John reminds us in his letters that God is love, and love must stem from God – so the use of our gifts has to be also grounded in that love both from and for God. We can’t use any element of ourselves to benefit the body of believers outside of God’s love, and Paul explains that in pretty simple words. We can have the sacrifical love of Mother Theresa, we can be as passionately eloquent as MLK Jr., we can have the philanthropic ability of Andrew Carnegie, but if we do any great and noble service without the love of God it all becomes hollow. I don’t want to waste the gifts God has entrusted me with – I Corinthians 4:2 says that “it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful” – and so it is my desire that I use them IN LOVE to fulfil God’s plan in giving them to me. I can’t try any more to lean on my own strength to use the gifts God’s given me – the only way to go about life is to turn everything back over to Him and let Him use it in us for His glory. I’ve found myself praying over these verses a lot lately:
Make me patient, God, that I may bear with everyone around me when they do things I don’t like, so that I may be more like you.
Make me kind, Lord, that I may desire to do good to those you have placed in my life, that they may see more of you through my actions.
Keep me from envy, so I might abandon personal possessions to you in favor of desiring any thing, so that I may never treat another person with respect to the things they own, and in so doing refuse them the honor they deserve as your creation.
Do not give me any way to boast, because in that I might see my own accomplishments instead of the way you have used me, and in so doing set myself ahead of you and lose the ability to care for others as you want me to.
Keep me, God, from pride – for pride is the heart of all sin, and in being more interested in myself than I am in your glory I will relegate the people you want me to honor to be less important than myself, and forget that I am called to serve instead of be served.
Make me yet less easily angered, so that I might increase in my understanding of what truly matters in life, and cause less strife among my brothers and sisters, and in so doing encourage them to draw closer to you.
Strike from my memory any wrongs suffered – especially those I imagine and blow out of proportion – because holding a grudge against my brother or sister only festers in me negative emotions that become hurtful words and actions, and without that I am free to be uplifting and share your words of encouragement with everyone.
Give me no delight in evil, because you are the source of light and life and your heart is not in any evil actions, no matter how much my flesh would enjoy personal gratification at the cost of others.
Increase my delight in the truth, Daddy, because the truth brings to light the lies we so often listen to, and even though it might strike at my pride there is no truth that does not bring life, and whether hearing it or giving it your love will bring healing and encouragement wherever the truth is found.
Grant me the ability to protect those in my life, Father, because you have appointed me as a man to guard the physical and spiritual and mental and emotional well-being of my brothers and sisters, and they deserve nothing less than the best protection you can give.
Strengthen my trust in others, that I may believe and encourage without passing judgement, and that I may be open to hearing you speak through other believers.
Increase my hope in both you and my brothers and sisters, that I may live confidently in faith that you are living and active and not undermine the body with doubt and misplaced concern.
Deepen my reserves, God, that I may persevere in desire for you even when everyone around me is falling into despair, that I may hold you up as the only safe rock in a place of storm, that when all else around me fails I may remain securely clasped in your arms of peace.
Grant me, Father, your own love – that never fails, that never gives up, that is so intense and fierce and tenaciously jealous that nothing will ever distract me from the truth that the people I am with are just as much yours as I am, and that you have as much infinite love for them as you have for me, and that they are worth more than even the greatest outpouring of love I am capable of giving them.
Father God, above all I ask for, beyond all I hope for, before anything else I want, give me LOVE. Give me a love that saturates my mind so thoroughly that I can’t act out of anything but love, that I can’t entertain thoughts of others that aren’t born from love, that it becomes literally impossible for me to speak words of death or condemnation to the the people you have chosen to be in my life. Set love between my mind and my heart as a filter for my actions, so that my gut instinct, my very first reaction to anything, is to love. Bring me to your true heart, because you are love, and I want to be like you.
