“Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance” (1Cor.13:7 NLT)
“Love puts up with anything. Trusts God always. Always looks for the best. Never looks back but keeps going to the end” (The Message)
“Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything” (JB Phillips)
“Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (NIV)
“Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail.” (GNT)
“Love bears all things regardless of what comes, believes all things looking for the best in each one, hopes all things remaining steadfast during difficult times, endures all things without weakening.” (Amplified Bible)
Lord Jesus, no matter how we translate it, paraphrase, or parse this one verse—it gladdens, humbles, and convicts us. This is the way you love us 100% of the time, 24/365. Having born our sin on the cross, you now bear and forbear with us and will do so all the way Home. Hallelujah!
But you don’t merely “put up with us”; you have hidden our lives in yours. You know the worst about us and yet you greatly delight in us. You believe the best about us because we have the best of you in us. We are made in your image and you now live inside of us (Col.1:27). And though it is unfathomable—one Day we will be fully like you (1Jn.3:1-3). Hallelujah! That Day cannot dawn too soon, Jesus.
Also in the unfathomable department—this is how you are committed and willing to love through us. This both encourages and “scares the begeebers” out of us. You know the relationships in which we really want to love well but feel like love-failures, You also know the people we have no desire to love like this. So forgive us, free us, and transform us, Jesus. So Very Amen.
