The greatest of these is love…. 1 Corinthians 13:13

I’m discovering something new about love.

Which is weird because my life’s pursuit is love.

….love of the Father.
….my husband, children and family.
….love of God’s people.

But in the past few weeks the Holy Spirit has revealed something I didn’t understand before now.

LOVE affects everything!

Love, of course, impacts people. It is what triumphs over heartbreak and is our healing. Love is our legacy and our future. But I’m discovering something utterly astonishing about love in this season.

Love is a power.

Love can change anything and everything. (Ya, you might be yawning here because you already know this, right? Tell me something I don’t know, right?)

I’ve discovered how love not only affects my human relationships but also my car, my pets, my city, well just about everything I set to purposely love.

Let me explain. Over the past several months, I began to grumble about my car. It’s more than 10 years old and I would really like to buy another one. But alas, the finances aren’t there. So, the more I grumbled, mainly to myself and my husband, the more problems incurred with my little red car. First, the transmission, then some weird and unexplained popping and clanging on the freeway, tow truck needed. (Ya, that was fun ☹) After a transmission repair and a thousand dollars later, still more problems. Thus, more grumbling.

What is also interesting is that up until a few months ago, I loved my car. After 10 years of driving, it still ROCKED, at least in my mind. It was fast (I may have a lead foot *grin*.) It remained “cool” in my eyes and I loved driving it.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I recognized all the grumbling and stopped. I began to love my car again. I thought it was “cool” once more. I would get in and bless it.

Guess what? I just returned from a road trip to visit my son in Nevada…. Absolutely no problems. It’s perfectly fine now.

Weird..

But wait, there’s more.

My city. I have lived in Temecula for nearly 20 years, but I have never truly thought of this town as mine. My home, my place, my people, my city. While out on a walk n pray God said, “Lynn, love your city. All of it. Not just the people you know.”

Wow, unhuh!

I began to pray during my walk n pray over my city. I would pray with faith, “I love my city. I bless the businesses, the government, the schools, the open spaces. I bless the children and families. I LOVE THIS CITY. It is beautiful in its uniqueness. I love this town. I am thankful to live here and serve this community.”

I prayed with a genuine heart. You know what? Something happens when you pray out loud with love as a power. All of a sudden, I truly DO love my city. I’m so thankful to be placed here and live here. And you know what happened next, God began to bless me with opportunities I’d never had before in my own city.

I will be writing devotions now for our local newspaper.

I am blessed to love on my city now through words of faith and love in our newspaper. Say what?????

My SUMite Sisters and brothers, I ask you. What do you need to love? Whom do you need to love? What are you grumbling against that actually could be changed through the power of love?

Everything changes when the substance of love is applied.

Our faith will be rewarded in eternity. Hope, will be realize when we walk through the gate, eternal. We will no longer need to tarry in faith and hope….. But LOVE. We will live in love forever.

Faith, hope and love in these we abide. But the greatest of these is LOVE!