Love Part 4

1Corinthians 13:6-7
6.Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7.It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

For a real understanding of these two verses I want to define the underlined words and talk about them a bit.
Love does not delight in evil, what is it to delight in some thing?
Delight:
To give great pleasure, satisfaction, or enjoyment to; please highly

In Psalms 37:4 it says to delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.
This tells me to (give) great pleasure, satisfaction, or enjoyment to the Lord. To please him highly. In return he will give me my hearts desire. This would mean that I must first know or learn that which brings him (God) great pleasure or enjoyment. I believe that once I am truly serving God with great pleasure and walking in the center of his will then comes the real enjoyment and satisfaction of life,
As he begins to give us the desires of our heart.
What we fail to realize is that the time we spend enjoying his presents and serving him with great pleasure. He begins to deposit things in our lives. He awakens and places his desires in us.
So that would mean at the moment of getting our hearts desires, they are really Gods desires that he has placed in us.
Delighting in him!! AHHH... what a beautiful thing!

Evil:
–adjective
1. morally wrong or bad; immoral; wicked
2. harmful; injurious: evil laws.
3. characterized or accompanied by misfortune or suffering; unfortunate; disastrous: to be fallen on evil days.
4. due to actual or imputed bad conduct or character: an evil reputation.
5.marked by anger, irritability, irascibility, etc.: He is known for his evil disposition.
–noun
6. that which is evil; evil quality, intention, or conduct: to choose the lesser of two evils.
7. the force in nature that governs and gives rise to wickedness and sin.
8. the wicked or immoral part of someone or something: The evil in his nature has destroyed the good.
9. harm; mischief; misfortune: to wish one evil.
10. anything causing injury or harm
11. a harmful aspect, effect, or consequence
–adverb
13. in an evil manner; badly; ill: It went evil with him.
—Idiom
14. the evil one, the devil; Satan.
—Synonyms
 sinful, iniquitous, depraved, vicious, corrupt, base, vile, nefarious. 2.  pernicious, destructive. 3.  wickedness, depravity, iniquity, unrighteousness, corruption, baseness. 4. disaster, calamity, woe, misery, suffering, sorrow.

Real Love does not find satisfaction, enjoyment, or great pleasure in anything morally wrong or bad, harmful or injurious, misfortune or suffering, corruption, etc.etc.

On the contrary it “rejoices with the Truth”.

Truth:
1. The true or actual state of a matter: He tried to find out the truth.
2. Conformity with fact or reality; verity: the truth of a statement.
3. A verified or indisputable fact, proposition, principle, or the like: mathematical truths.
4. The state or character of being true.
5. Actuality or actual existence.
6. An obvious or accepted fact; truism; platitude.
7. Honesty; integrity; truthfulness.
8. Ideal or fundamental reality apart from and transcending perceived experience: the basic truths of life.
9. Agreement with a standard or original.
10. Accuracy, as of position or adjustment.

One of my favorites is in found in John 14:6, where Jesus says “I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life”
so this means that Jesus is the true and actual state of anything that matters. Jesus is the verified indisputable fact, proposition, and principle. If he is truth then it is through him and only him where we have actual existence. With out him there is no real honesty, integrity, or truthfulness. Jesus is the fundamental reality.

Love rejoices with the Truth!

It (love) always Protects,

Protects:
1. To shield from injury or harm
2. To secure or preserve against encroachment, infringement, restriction, or violation : maintain the status or integrity of esp. through legal or constitutional guarantees.
3. To defend or guard from attack, invasion, loss, annoyance, insult, etc.; cover or shield from injury or danger.
4. To provide, or be capable of providing, protection

With this definition I asked my self, does the love I say I have for my spouse, family, and friends always protect? Lets look at this a bit closer. Number one is an easy one any one would want to keep those we love from injury or harm. Number two is where it got me thinking. To secure against encroachment.

Encroachment:
1. To intrude gradually, stealthily, or insidiously upon the rights, property, etc, of another
2. To advance beyond the usual or proper limits.
3. Intrusion, invasion, tresspass, violation.

I know that for me there are many times when I am in a silly mood or playful mood that I advance beyond my children's usual or proper limits. Leaving them feeling angry or upset because of my behavior or actions toward them. On one side I am raising them to set boundaries and limits in their lives. Then on the other side I come along and do something that shows them that I don't care about their limits and that it is ok to violate the limits that I help them set. I am not guarding them from annoyance or insult but instead causing it. I of course try to lighten the offense by saying some thing like “ oh come on I was just playing or, I was only joking around.” I even tell them after I pushed their limits and make them upset, to not be so sensitive. God's word says “Parents do not Provoke your children to anger”.
I can even do the same with my spouse. When I am in a mood for intimacy and thinking of the satisfaction of my own desires (hormones). It is very easy to not consider the state she might be in but out of love and submission she might give her self to me any ways, only leaving her with a sort of feeling of violation. Like being a piece of meat or property.
That is not Protecting but Encroaching an that is NOT LOVE......

Love always Trusts

Trusts:
1.reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.
2.confident expectation of something; hope.
3.to rely upon or place confidence in someone or something (usually fol. by in or to ): to trust in another's honesty.
4.to have confidence; hope
5.to have trust or confidence in; rely or depend on.
6.to believe.
Synonyms
7.certainty, belief, faith. Trust, assurance, confidence imply a feeling of security. 8.Trust implies instinctive unquestioning belief in and reliance upon something: to have trust in one's parents. 9.Confidence implies conscious trust because of good reasons, definite evidence, or past experience: to have confidence in the outcome of events. 10. Assurance implies absolute confidence and certainty: to feel an assurance of victory; commitment; commission; credit; entrust

It is a good feeling when you have someone in your life that you know you can trust. You place all your confidence in them you rely on them, there is a since of security with them. It is as if they are holding you at times. You believe in them and they in you.

I don't know about you but I have one of those people in my life; my wife, she is one that holds me together at times, I have 100% confidence in her, her integrity and honesty can be relied on. She has proven over and over again that I can depend on her. Love always trust! Thank God for her in my life, I can always trust her.
I want people to feel the same way about me that I feel about my wife. it is a beautiful feeling when you know that you have someones 100% trust. On the other hand when that trust has been violated you feel crushed. Love has been disturbed, interrupted, violated.

Lord help me to always Love (trust), and be one that can be trusted (Loved)..






Love always Hopes
Hopes:
1. the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best: to give up hope.
2. a particular instance of this feeling: the hope of winning.
3. grounds for this feeling in a particular instance: There is little or no hope of his recovery.
4. a person or thing in which expectations are centered: The medicine was her last hope.
5. something that is hoped for: Her forgiveness is my constant hope.
–verb (used with object)
6. to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence.
7. to believe, desire, or trust: I hope that my work will be satisfactory.
–verb (used without object)
8. to feel that something desired may happen: We hope for an early spring.
9. to place trust

This is very understandable, Love most definitely hopes. I have seen this through the years when I was growing up. I had some friends that came from pretty broken messed up homes. Their fathers were doing drugs and many times coming home drunk. My friends their siblings and their mothers would often be abused physically, verbally, and emotionally. I happened to be spending the night during one of these occasions. It was such a scary, emotional time. I could not understand why my friend and their mom just didn't leave the situation. I have seen it time and time again through the years.
Some where in the beginning there was Love. But on one side it began to get a little warped. Maybe a little abuse started, or unfaithfulness but because the one side still had love (hope), it continued.
Yet time after time, abuse after abuse, adultery after adultery. The one side that has Love (hope) keeps it going, hoping it will turn out for the best.

I have a deep respect for those people who hang in there as long as they can!!!! they have real Love.

Love always perseveres
perseveres:
1.to persist in anything undertaken; maintain a purpose in spite of difficulty, obstacles, or discouragement; continue steadfastly.
2. to bolster, sustain, or uphold: unflagging faith that had persevered him.
—Synonyms
1.doggedness, steadfastness, Perseverance, persistence, tenacity, pertinacity imply resolute and unyielding holding on in following a course of action. Perseverance commonly suggests activity maintained in spite of difficulties or steadfast and long-continued application: Endurance and perseverance combined to win in the end. It is regularly used in a favorable sense.

I thank God for perseverance. If it was not for perseverance on both my wifes and my side, this adventurous loving relationship that was put together by God would not have lasted this long.
I can say in all honesty, that there has been incredible difficulties. The fact that we are from two different continents alone is one difficulty we overcame.
I will not even go into the numerous obstacles that have been springing up over the years all covered with heaping loads of discouragement.
Thank you God for Perseverance!!
Love is not easy at times, really not easy, but it always perseveres. May God give all of you that are in those times of perseverance a supernatural strength to hang on.

May we all have the kind of love that always protects, trust, hopes, and perseveres...