“Love, we hear, is patient and kind (1 Corinthians 13:4). Then we mistakenly try to be loving by acting patiently and kindly — and quickly fail. We should always do the best we can in action, of course; but little progress is to be made in that arena until we advance in love itself - the genuine inner readiness and longing to secure the good of others. Until we make significant progress there, our patience and kindness will be shallow and short-lived at best.
It is love itself - not loving behavior, or even the wish or intent to love - that has the power to “always protect, always trust, always hope, put up with anything, and never quit” (1 Corinthians 13:7-8). Mere trying to act lovingly will lead to despair and to the defeat of love. It will make us angry and hopeless.
But taking love itself - God’s kind of love - into the depths of our being through spiritual formation will, by contrast, enable us to act lovingly to an extent that will be surprising even to ourselves, at first. And this love will then become a constant source of joy and refreshment to ourselves and others. Indeed, it will be according to the promise, ” a well of water springing up to eternal life” (John 4:14) — not an additional burden to carry through life, as “acting lovingly” surely would be.”
— Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart.
it’s been very difficult to love lately. particularly towards one person whom i thought i was pretty close with, until things got twisted and complicated. however, i know now that it is the transformation of the heart — specifically a spiritual transformation — that can change the course of my heart and my actions towards that one person. forgive me, i was trying and relied on my own strength. i only pray, with all that i am, that God will change my heart, and restore our friendship to the fullest, so that we may truly be sisters in Christ and love each other as so.
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i suppose the reading for our Bible classes can be really beneficial. wootwoot for the required 30 units of Bible in Biola!
