Love Bears All Things
Girls, we’ve spent a lot of time learning what love doesn’t do. Now let’s look at what love does!
“Love bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”
1 Corinthians 13:7
Love bears all things.
Did “all things” stand out to you like it did me? The Enduring Word Commentary says, “All things covers everything! We can bear some things, we can believe some things, we can hope some things, and we can all endure some things. But God calls us farther and deeper into love for Him, for one another, and for a perishing world.”
The word bears can be translated as “covers.” 1 Peter 4:8 says, “And above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins.
Girls, read this quote from Charles Spurgeon slowly and take in the mental imagery, “I would, my brothers and sisters, that we could imitate the pearl oyster. A hurtful particle intrudes itself into its shell and this vexes and grieves it. It cannot eject the evil, and what does it do but cover it with a precious substance extracted out of its own life, by which it turns the intruder into a pearl. Oh that we would do so with the provocations we receive from our fellow Christians, so that pearls of patience, gentleness, long suffering, and forgiveness might be bred within us by the which has caused us harm.”
Girls, is that not beautiful, convicting, and hopeful all at the same time. If we are seeking God and submitting to His way and His process, He will use the things that have caused you harm to grow these fruit of the spirit in you and girls, anything the enemy has used for evil if we allow God to, God will use it for good. (Romans 8:28)
*****Here’s a quick side note, we have to take scripture and look at it as a whole and in the context of the whole Bible. If you are being abused mentally, sexually, or physically that does not mean to just stay and bear the horrific treatment and abuse. No, daughters of the King, that is how the Enemy, whose name literally means Deceiver would like us to think. He might even try to take scripture and make you think that. The fact that he does that infuriates me if I’m honest with you.
If you are being abused in any way, tell someone, get help. Do not just continue to be abused thinking that this is what God has for you, your cross to bear. No, daughters, that’s taking that scripture out of context. Get help, dear ones. Cry out to God. Ask Him to send someone if you can’t get free from the abuse yourself. He hears our cries for help and wants to rescue you, dear ones, and He cares for you more than anyone else in the world.
Here is just one verse that shows us how God anger at those who cause young believers to stumble or sin, Matthew 18:6, “If anyone causes these little ones who believe in me to sin (stumble), it would be better for him/her to have a large millstone hung around his neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
Listen to how He hears us. God’s Work literally says our cries reach His ears. “But in my distress, I cried to the Lord; yes, I prayed to my God for help. He heard me from his sanctuary; my cry to him reached his ears.” (Psalm 18:6)
Let’s close with this beautiful verse from Ephesians 4:2, “Be completely humble and gentle, bearing with one another in love.” God will do this in you, daughters of the King, as you grow in your relationship with Him, experience more of His love, and submit to His will and way.
But oh dear ones, know that you will never be perfect until you are in your forever home with your Savior and King. You are being sanctified but you are still human. I share that for recovering perfectionists like me, who desperately want to be perfect right now. Dear ones, be patient in the process, submit to God and His plan for your sanctification. Confidently rest in knowing that “I am certain of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)