Enough

SCRIPTURE: Job 39-40; 1 Corinthians 13-14

Job 40:1-5
God then confronted Job directly: “Now what do you have to say for yourself?
Are you going to haul me, the Mighty One, into court and press charges?”

^3-5 Job answered:

“I’m speechless, in awe—words fail me.
I should never have opened my mouth!
I’ve talked too much, way too much.
I’m ready to shut up and listen.”

 

1 Corinthians 13:1-10
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. ²If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

OBSERVATIONS: Love is HARD. To be successful in agape love requires constant attention to giving oneself away. Agape is not self-destruction. One is not required to diminish in capacity, ability, or innate worth. Instead, one who practices agape love is willing to maintain worth — indeed, to increase that worth — while refusing to claim the rights, privileges, and place associated with that worth as such.

APPLICATION: Joey, you have earned nothing. All that you have and all that you are come as a result of Grace. Be still. Rest. Prepare to give yourself away.

PRAYER: God, your grace is more than sufficient. Why do I want more? Remind me that I have more that enough — too much, in fact. Remind me that You are Enough.