Agape Love

Midweek Study with Pastor Edith
July 31, 2024
Galatians 5:22-25, 1 Corinthians 13:4-13

I’ve been feeling a bit unsettled with the world. I try to avoid watching or listening to the news, but I know that I need to be informed so that I can engage in conversations as well as how I can pray more specifically. I understand that God already knows everything, but I believe there is something calming about speaking with God about my concerns – I think He just wants me to make time for Him.

With all the turmoil in the world, in our communities and sometimes in our churches and homes, I find that I am less and less peaceful, so I asked the Lord to help me find a focus for our midweek meditations to help anyone who might be feeling what I am feeling. I landed on a favorite devotion series entitled The Fruit of the Spirit by Robert Strand. Gleaning from Galatians 5:22-25, I hope these next five meditations will help calm your soul as it calms mine.

The first fruit in Paul’s list for the Galatians is Love. This is Agape love, the all-. encompassing presence of God in our lives. It never changes and it never fails. When we come to faith in God, inviting His Son, Jesus Christ into our lives, we then are invited to reflect and represent Him in the world. In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 we read from the Apostle Paul how this love demonstrates itself: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, 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”. Robert Strand suggests that these are characteristics of Christ and as followers, we too can demonstrate these traits. One way to check how we are doing with this is to put our name where the word Love appears in the passage above. Go ahead, try it, even speaking these verses with your name in place of Love and feel what that speaks to you, what the Holy Spirit is saying to you. For me, it makes me realize how much I need the Holy Spirit to help me grow in character and Christian witness.

One last thought from Robert Strand; “Not a whole lot is going to happen for the good in this world until we can team up with God and other people to make life what it ought to be, church what it ought to be, society what it should be and homes what they should be. Together in partnership with God, we can reach out and touch all who might be hurting or incomplete” (The Fruit of the Spirit pg. 19).

Amen!