Love Is Not Provoked

 

The verses we're focusing on recently from 1 Corinthians can bring a heart to it's knees can't they?

Living in this world offers daily, and even moment by moment, opportunity to say "Lord, I can't love like You love. I can't be patient all the time!"

And that's a good place to be. 

It's here in this place of impotence that we begin to allow the Lord to use our being and live out His attributes through us.

The word provoke in 1Corinthans means to excite someone into some action or feeling.

I think we all understand this situation.

 Especially living in a world that functions in perpetual conflict and intense turmoil.

Whether troubles exist in the world surrounding us or play out in the lives of those we care about, it can become easy to respond outside of God's will to the provoking situations we deal with almost daily.

Our family went to the dentist last week. 

Both he and his dental hygienist mentioned the uptick in patients who are visiting them concerning the problem of cracked teeth. They attribute this situation to the stress people are enduring today.

I thought their comments gave new meaning to the words " gritting your teeth." 

It seems that many people feel so tense that they are gritting or grinding their teeth and suffering from stress.

Living in this world can cause us to suffer agitation and pain from feelings that provoke us to either anger or despair.

Our verse today simply states that love is not provoked.

Love is not provoked by the behavior of people or the situations their behaviors cause.

We all endure situations that can provoke feelings of anger or anxiety.

John MacArthur writes, " The problem isn't circumstances, the problem is the preoccupation of your mind that you're important, that your rights matter, that your territory is invincible. When somebody steps into your territory or violates your rights, they trigger your anger because you've already predetermined that you have those rights."

None of us enjoy troubling circumstances,  but the answer is not us finding new circumstances. The answer is everything coming from Christ and nothing coming from me.

We naturally strive and fight against people or situations that step on our personal "rights" and desires.

This helps create more stress and strain.

The turmoil in our world today pulls us unwillingly into battles we once considered foreign to us.

Spending time in God's presence and His Word will prove to be our greatest stronghold....our high tower of refuge.

His Word says that.......

Love will overlook a multitude of sins.

Love will stop and think before it speaks or acts.

Love will choose patience and prayer.

Whether we are provoked by a simple interruption to our schedule and routine or provoked by the changes we see taking place in our country and our world, we, as believers, know to take this agitation to the cross.

At the cross, our hearts are examined.

Am I angry because I'm afraid?.......perfect love casts out fear.1 John 4:18

Am I provoked because things seem out of my control? ....God has commanded us to be strong and courageous. He tells us not to be be afraid or discouraged because He will be with us wherever we go. Joshua 1:9

Am I provoked with people because they are immature and irritating?

The Word reminds us that love is patient and kind. Love hopes, believes and endures.

Am I provoked because my trials never seem to have an ending? 

God says we are to remain joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and be faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12

 Am I restless and ready to take things into my own hands?  

God's Word says to trust Him with all my heart and not to lean on my own understanding.

As we meet with Jesus in a quiet place feelings calm and thoughts are restored.

Sharing our troubles with a friend takes some of the burden from our own shoulders.

We cannot take one another's burdens away, but we can carry them together for a while.

Bearing burdens creates spiritual strength and fortitude.

Bearing them with a trusted friend creates bonds of love.

As we journey through we are told that in this world we will have tribulation. Yet, Jesus has overcome the world and this cheers our hearts and comforts us.

Take heart my friends....