3 day plan

Loving When It’s Hard - Part 1

Day 2 of 3

NIV

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Loving When it’s Hard, with Friends

One of the challenges in friendship is the choice about whether to cultivate a relationship or cut it loose. But the way we treat others is a not-so-silent witness to others as to what Jesus is like. Jesus had some pretty unreliable friends who let him down, but even those who did, he did not abandon. He continued to love them. He had every reason to walk away, but he didn’t.

I hate conflict and will squirm to avoid it, preferring to just shrug off my hurts. One day, a friend of mine inadvertently hurt me. It wasn’t intentional, but I was deeply hurt. Grrr… I bravely let them know. And you know what? We reconciled, and our friendship is stronger than ever. We keep no record of wrongs.

Question
What do you do when you are hurt by a friend?

Prayer
LORD, you know what it’s like to have to love friends when it’s hard. Give me your love for my friends.

The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.

Days

1
2
3

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

1If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If 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. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.