Love is patient...

This morning I woke up to read 1 Corinthians 13, feeling like I needed a reminder. Thus ensued an amazing conversation with the Lord.
I read about love being patient and kind, not envying, not being proud, or rude, or boastful, keeping no record of wrong, not delighting in evil, but rejoicing in the truth.

I looked at the list several times feeling terribly inadequate. So I prayed, "Oh, Lord, please make me more loving."

He answered with a phrase, "God is love." So I thus inserted God in for love in the passage. Therefore, God is patient and kind. God does not envy, or boast. God is not proud or rude. God is not self-seeking (though He is the only one really allowed to be). God does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. God keeps no record of wrongs. He always protects, always hopes, always trusts, always perseveres.

I then realized He does these things for me. He is patient and keeps no record of my wrong. He is slow to anger with me, even when I fail, sin, rebel. So to pray that I would be more loving is a futile and foolish way to pray, for it implies that I can be more loving. Instead, mine is to abide in God who is Love.

I prayed today for an opportunity to abide in His love, so that He could love through me. He answered by putting me in contact with one person throughout the day, all day, amid technology issues. I wasn't abiding very well at the beginning. But throughout the day my heart turned to Jesus, and patience came, and the desire to boast or get angry vanished. Today, I knew the God who is Love.