OUR DAILY BREAD : LOVE BELIEVES ALL THINGS

by **cimi** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 3:22 pm

September 26
Saturday

LOVE BELIEVES
ALL THINGS

READ:
1 Corinthians 13
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[Love] believes all
things, hope all things.
__1 Corinthians 13:7
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It was 40 years ago or more that I observed a friend of mine showing great affection for someone I considered unworthy of love. I thought my friend was being taken in, and I was afraid he would be disillusioned and saddened in the end.

When I expressed my concern, he replied, "When I stand before my Lord, I hope He'll say of me that I've loved too many, rather than too few." I've never forgotten his words.

Paul insists that "[love] believes all things" (1 cor. 13:7). Love "believes" in people. It can see the potential in them. It believes that God can take the most unattractive and unworthy individual and turn that person into a masterpiece of beauty and grace. If love errs, it must err in the way of trustfulness and hopefulness.

Certainly, we must be aware of danger when we see it coming, and become "as wise as serpents" (Matt. 10:16). Tough love may be the best response to irresponsible and foolishness people, but we can be too guarded, too wary and distrustful.

It doesn't do us any real harm to be hoodwinked and defrauded (Matt. 5:38-48). It's better to believe in someone and have your heart broken than to have no heart at all. British poet Alfred Tennyson wrote, "'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." I agree. __David Roper
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``````````````````Lord, help us to believe in people```````````````
``````````````````And all that in them You can do,````````````````
`````````````````So we can say we've loved too many,`````````````
``````````````````````Rather than too few. __Sper```````````````
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Love looks beyond what people are
to what they can become.

**************Today's Bible Reading __ 1 Corinthians 13***********

1 Though I speak with the
tongues of men and of
angels, but have not love, I
have become sounding brass
or a clanging cymbal. 2 And
though I have the gift of
prophecy, and understand all
mysteries and all knowledge,
and though I have all faith,
so that I could remove
mountains, but have not
love, I am nothing. 3 And
though I bestow all my
good to feed the poor, and
though I give my body to be
burned, but have not love, it
profits me nothing.

4 Love suffers long and is
kind; love does not envy;
love does not parade itself, is
not puffed up; 5 does not
behave rudely, does not seek
its own, is not provoked,
thinks no evil; 6 does not
rejoice in iniquity, but
rejoices in the truth; 7 bears
all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all
things.

8 Love never fails. But
whether there are prophecies,
they will fail; whether there
are tongues, they will cease;
whether there is knowledge,
it will vanish away. 9 For we
know in part and we
prophesy in part. 10 But
when that which is perfect
has come, then that which is
in part will be done away.

11 When I was a child, I
spoke as a child, I
understood as a child, I
thought as a child; but when
I became a man, I put away
childish things. 12 For now
we se in a mirror, dimly,
but then face to face. Now I
know in part, but then I shall
know just as I also am
known. 13 And now abide
faith, hope, love, these three;
but the greatest of these is
love.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>INSIGHT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

This hymn about the character of love is one of the most quoted
passage of all Bible texts. Paul personified love in verses 4-7. Some
see in this a description of the character of Jesus. __SIM KAY TEE