Motivated by Love?

Who are you living for? Yourself? A close friend, spouse, or relative? God?

If you answered God or want to answer God, read along with me as I write these words:

1 Corinthians 13:1-3
If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Is love motivating your actions? Is it reigning in your thoughts?

This is a check for me too. I've been getting aggravated lately with a lot of people because I've realized how much conversation has not been directed at pleasing God. It has been centered around speaking poorly of others (others that He calls by name and loves dearly). I'm trying to get this temptation to gossip out of my life and the more I do it, the more I can't stand to be around it. The more I can't stand to be around it, the more I notice these girls can't stand to be around me.

Here's what I want to say to that:

Why do you criticize me, looking for me to fix your life for you? Why do you get disappointed in me when I don't act exactly as you tell me to? Stop seeking me to solve your problems. Seek after Him.

You can choose to be disappointed. You can choose to talk behind my back, but what is motivating you?

Your actions make me sad not because you are hurting me, but because He calls us to live in such real life.

Something I wrote last summer:

Someone pointed out to me that I said the word "like" all the time. I started trying to fix that. I really tried to stop saying "he was like...and then she was like..." and I replaced it with saying "he said...and then she said..." That really bothered me too. Then I realized why: I was gossiping. Maybe I started using the word "like" to make myself realize it less, but now it stings... May I instead focus on the words the Lord my God says. May His words be quick to my lips, rather than me hiding behind my gossiping hideousness that always hides deeper intricate vocabulary. May I seek to better know and understand how deep, how wide, and how vast my God's love is for all the people I have gossiped about. May my "like" for people grow to love.

Many women get into this lifestyle of gossip because they desire having close connection with other women. They desire expressing their opinions and feeling a sense of control about situations they have crazy feelings but no actual control over. Women (and men) seek to gossip for some sort of personal gain (being heard, expressing feelings, pride, etc).

May His words be quick to my lips. May His gain be quick to my heart...

Philippians 3:7-8

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ

So this being driven by love thing...I don't have it all figured out. I'm only asking for wisdom, laying down anything that may be to my profit and seeking what would please God in order to gain Christ.

From the words of 1 Corinthians 13, remember that what may seem to be a profit is nothing without love, that is the Love that comes from Jesus Christ. 

First let us lay down our lives in order to gain Christ. It is through that, that we may gain His love. It is through gaining His love that we may show His love. In showing His love, may our lives be fruitful of our Love, Jesus Christ.

So once again I ask, who are you living for? 

How are you going to show it?