Love Defines You
It Defines You
(#029 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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“For You formed my inward parts [innermost being]; You covered me [knit me together] in my mother’s womb.” (Psalm 139:13)
Yes, My child, I Am love (1 John 4:8) and I designed you as a vessel to both create and receive love. It is precisely because you were created in My image (Genesis 1:27) that love is the very thing that defines you. You were literally created for love. I know this because I formed your innermost being. And, I orchestrated everything in your life that would bring you to love’s full expression, and I did so before the foundations of the earth. I saw the pleasure and the joy; and I knew the pain and the disappointment you would experience. It was all My plan. In light of this, you should meditate again on this reality. “I Am love and you were created in My image.”
And so you would be without excuse, I have defined love for you (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). I need, or rather, demand that you grasp that you have since created your own definition of love. Nevertheless, My definition remains the only true definition. Love is My emotion; I intimately crafted it to define Me and I do not give anyone permission to alter its attributes. Have I not told you that “love never fails” and that “love keeps no record of wrongs?” The pain you choose to carry is simply because you have all failed one another and likewise have kept records of such. You fail to love like Me because you fail to forgive like Me. First, forgive yourself for defining love by your own perverted standards, and then forgive others for doing the same. It is in this place that I will heal you.
Lastly, don’t be discouraged by your failure to love as I intended, My child. It will happen, for I have given you a new heart [mind] (Ezekiel 36:26) and the capacity to love as I love. Yes, the work has been completed (John 19:30; Hebrews 12:2), the veil torn in two (Mark 15:38). You have been granted full access to My Kingdom of love. Remember, I love you and I have created you to love like Me, for My glory. I will use your pain and redeem you as a choice vessel for My honor. Give in to Me, and let love reign.
Love is patient, love is kind. It is not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)