July 17: WHAT WE DO WITH OUR LOVE IS WHAT WE DID IN OUR LIFE.

Affirmation: Enjoy being creative.

“Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.” Galatians 6:4-5 The Message

I love these verses! We each have beautiful gifts and talents and God wants us to do our creative best in love!

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Ponder: Memorize Psalm 25:4-6. Make this your prayer today. Focus on the 2nd sentence: Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.

“Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Remember Lord, your great mercy and love, for they are from days of old. Psalm 25:4-6

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Reading for Today

Walk in Grace. Live in Love. by Bob Goff 

                      July 17

WHAT WE DO WITH OUR LOVE IS WHAT WE DID IN OUR LIFE. NOTHING ELSE WILL MAKE THE HIGHLIGHT REEL.

Now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 

1 CORINTHIANS 13:13 

You know what's great about making new friends? You're invited into stories you've never heard before. When people feel a sense of welcome and safety with you, they begin to tell you where they've come from and who they've been throughout their lives. You get the highlight reel of the major moments, what shaped them into the people they are today. 

What stands out in those stories is love. Even in the midst of challenges and trials, we get to hear about the praying grandmother who never stopped believ­ing in them. We get to hear about the coach who took our new friend under his wing and treated him like a son. These stories give us a glimpse into the struggles, but they almost always introduce us to heroes who faithfully loved.

God said of all the virtues we strive to live out, faith, hope, and love remain. And the greatest is love. Not surprisingly, these things that God says remain are the very things the world attacks. Our programs might work, but it's love that lasts. After the curtain falls on our lives and people reflect on who we were and what we did, they won't remember the extra hours we put in at the office or that the house was always tidy. They'll remember the ways our love impacted their lives. 

At the end of our days, I'm certain we'll find that what we did with our love is what we did in our life. Nothing else will make the highlight reel. Everything else-our titles, our accomplishments, our books, our notoriety-will end up on the editing room floor. Anything is worth doing if it's done with love, and nothing's worth doing if it comes at love's cost. Hold your priorities up to love's test and do this: throw yourself into anything that passes. 

What have you been prioritizing lately that doesn't hold up to love's test?