It is not love from one, and only one other human, that people desire.
People simply, once they have thirsted for it enough, have need of care, kindness, comfort… patience.
And yet what is love, other than an action?
What is it to be loving?
How can one show love?
How often shall we love?
Who?
When?
Why?
And what is greater? Giving it? Receiving it?
How do I give love? How do I receive?
Father… I have failed. I have likened the darkness. I have become the shadow in the corner.. I have fallen — farther than the universe’ fingertips can reach me.. I am lost. Unsure which way is up.. but Father, You still are here. You stay here. You have always been here. YOU stay the same. And how lasting is constancy.. how comforting is forever. How new is your mercy…
And yet, He offers this love to the world. An unending kindness, a map to the hidden treasure, a hand to hold.. an ear to hear us.
Right here, right now, you can lift your voice to this Father. You can say hello, you can thank him for the sleeping baby on your shoulder, you can whisper hallelujah to the King of Kings, you can cry out in pain, anguish, despair… or joy… or thanksgiving.. in praise. Or in all of it. He hears you. His love surrounds you. Look for His presence.
1 John 4:7-8
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
1 Peter 4:8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
1 John 3:16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
Matthew 7:1-29 “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. …
Colossians 3:12-15 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
Hebrews 13:1-25 Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” ...
1 Corinthians 16:14 Let all that you do be done in love. Psalm 34:18 ESV / 86 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
Luke 6:27-36 “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. ...
1 Peter 2:1-25 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. …
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ...
