LOVE IS PATIENT

What’s God’s love

I recently listened to one of the series which was recommended by a friend. So, let’s talk about some love today. Check out the link here — westlight.org/love-series.

There are four different kinds of love that we are familiar with. Eros — romantic love, sensual love, I believe you guys know more about this kind of love than I do so I’ll stop here. Phileo — brotherly love, close friendship. Imagine you go to a Warriors game and see all the fans cheering for Stephen Curry, you high five with the strangers because he hits a 3, or when you meet someone who likes video games too and you say “yo, that’s my bro”. These are Phileo. Storge — natural, familial love, siblings love. Parents love their children, the siblings love between Elsa and Anna, these are Storge. The last one is the most difficult one, Agape — selfless, sacrificial love. Focuses on the will, unconcerned with self and concerned with the greatest good of others.

Paul wrote a letter to a place called Corinth and we called that letter 1 Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 13:4–7, there are many characteristics that point out what’s love. However, the very first thing that Paul puts down here is patient.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. — Galatians 5:22–23

Do you like to wait on stuff? Waiting in line to get into Trader Joe’s; waiting for the bathroom; waiting for the bus, waiting for a webpage to load. There’s a sermon mention when people click on a video on the website, there are only 20% of the people would wait for the video to show up if it takes more than 10 seconds to load the video. We desire to watch that video, nobody forces us to click it but we refuse to wait for 10 seconds. I asked myself, was that the reason why sometimes I got tired of waiting for God’s will and His plan? I desired something, yes, I prayed, yes but did I just pray for 10 seconds or I prayed like how Jesus prayed — earnestly, and sweat like drops of blood falling to the ground.

Oh my, what a powerful reminder for myself. There were definitely multiple times that I stopped praying about the things in my prayer list because I didn’t see any progress, didn’t get an update from God, didn’t know if it was working or not, so I lost hope, lost patience. But hear me out, when I looked back, actually those incidents made sense to me (even the teeny-tiny incident), it seemed like they all happened according to God’s plan (they were way better than I expected).

The process was hard, waiting was even harder for me, but I encourage you to just wait, be patient. Everything’s under God’s control, we might not find any difference for now, however, the seed of hope was planted, His will was fulfilled. Deuteronomy 31:6 says — “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.” Isn’t that comforting? God will never forsake us, He’s there for us and we just need to believe, to have faith in Him, and to trust.

Faith is not knowing what the future holds, but who holds the future.

Patience in Greek is μακροθυμία, ας, ἡ (makrothumia). The sermon mentioned there are two meanings of patience in Greek. First — it does not pressure, it gives space to another person in terms of freedom. There is a good chance that we are actually in love with what that person can be rather than the person he/herself if we are pressuring another person to do certain things. Oh my, this is so true, I totally agree with it. It actually applies to not just our spouse, boy/girlfriend, and also our family or even friends. There were a couple of times that I pressured my friend to do something (just to clarify, they were totally legal and ethical :D).

Putting our own image upon other people, we will never be satisfied with the result because we will always ask or request more and more, to the point that only God could fulfill those requests. Pastor Tim Keller also mentioned in the book Counterfeit Gods “putting the weight of all your deepest hopes and longings on the person you are marrying, you are going to crush him or her with your expectations. No person, not even the best one, can give your soul all it needs.” When we aren’t satisfied with the result, we complain, and then the relationship starts breaking. Ouch, that’s the last thing we want to see in a relationship/friendship. So I want to encourage everyone to have a little more Agape love for the person for who they are, we want the best for them, not what they can be or the shadow of our own image, that’s a really important factor to last long a good relationship/friendship (taking note…).

Second — long-suffering. Love suffers long. Jesus carried the cross walking up the hill, his hands were nailed on the cross, the blood kept dropping, the flesh and blood were all over the place, suffered for the crime that he had never done before. But Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Technically, Jesus could just call an army to wipe out everyone there, and yet he didn’t. Jesus loved us so much, he suffered with us, he even died for our sin just to save us — God is love and patient, that’s how we should love one another. It’s easy to love someone that we like already, what about the person we dislike, maybe our enemy, maybe someone who has treated us wrong or unfair?

But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. — Luke 6:27

So I challenge you to have a little more Agape love towards those people. It’s also a challenge to me, when I think of those incidents and those people who did me wrong, I need to ask God for help and teach me to love them because I cannot do it with my own strength (sigh, too weak). God is incredibly patient, He will transform and sanctify us to have a better relationship with Him. We need to sacrifice something from our old life, such as pride, bias; follow His command, be obedient towards His will, let the Holy Spirit work in us. Gradually, you’ll be realizing that there are more peace and love in your life than before, without holding the grudge, without hatred, and live freely.

God’s perfect will was for the natural to be changed into the spiritual through obedience. Sin is what made it necessary for the natural to be sacrificed. — Oswald Chambers

So, that would be all from this post :) Stay safe and healthy!