You Got the Power

Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous;  not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing
1 Peter 3:8-9

We were filled with the Holy Spirit and equipped to love hard and long.  We were called to bless one another and in doing so, we will inherit a blessing from the Lord.

How wonderful it is to know that we live to demonstrate true love on the earth.  We can see relationships all around us that have no idea what love is about. 

cMarriages are in constant conflict and mistrust for one another.  Divorce is sky rocketing at a staggering rate and those who choose not to marry and co-habit instead are in just as much turmoil, if not more.

Parents and their offspring live in chaos and many families are totally dysfunctional with none in the home having the foggiest clue what true love is about.

We can have thousands of friends we have  never met through social media.  How much love does it take to maintain a friendship with a person we have never seen or spoken to.  Social media friends should never take the place of real, live friends.  I'm afraid that our young people will not develop the art of loving because of games, phones, tablets and other material things.

There's so much to gain and learn from real solid relationships.  We learn patience; putting up with other people's idiosyncrasies and moods.  We learn kindness and goodness through doing good deeds for others just because we love them.  We learn to trust, because we have to sometime depend on them or share a secret.  We learn faithfulness because a true friend will be there in tough times.

We learn gentleness through caring for the other person's feelings, because who really wants to crush someone they love?
We learn self control, because when we are angered by them, we still are mindful of our actions toward them, because they have value to us. 

As spirit-filled people, we have the power to resist hurting those we love, because we walk in the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  We know that we can speak in the tongues of angels, but if we are not walking in love, what good is it?  God did not anoint us to be spiritually bankrupt.

The precious Holy Spirit enabled us to walk like Christ.  For love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself; is not puffed up; does not behave rudely; does not seek it's own; is not provoked and thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.  Now these are the wonderful qualities of what love really is; it rejoices in the truth: bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things.  The love of God in us, through the Holy Spirit never fails.

We have the power to love and to love deeply.  Let's be about love and use the power that lies within us for the glory of God.  Now declare your inheritance.