5th May 2021
LOVE DETERMINANTS
David Abankwah
(SERIES: Day 15)
…..endures all things.
-1 Corinthians 13:7 | NKJV
Every athlete is subjected to pain and its endurance. For someone to be a good sportsman, that person must be prepared to undergo a series of training. This training is unpleasant to undergo but it is worth going through. An athlete must maintain the best conditioning so he can compete at the highest level and win. Most often, this training is a set of strategic pain models, orchestrated to be experienced over a long period of time. The fact that you went through training A today doesn’t mean that, when you train the next time, your pain will diminish. You have to endure the pain as an athlete the next time you train. The more you train, the more you have to endure.
But what makes athletes go through such pains in the first place? There is a certain trophy, accolade or a prize that the winner will take. Many athletes partake but only one wins the prize. If an athlete can have a love for a prize that is corruptible and go through series of endurance for it, then believers must also strengthen themselves in the Lord, when it comes to endurance concerning the love for God and men for incorruptible prize (crown of life). Love is going to cost you pain and you need to endure it. Love without endurance is like a lost ship on the ocean and a train on an asphalt road. Without endurance, you can’t have the perseverance to survive the test of love.
Do you think Pastors make you vow before the pulpit on the day when your marriage is blessed for nothing? Come on! They know at the back of their minds that, the journey you are embarking on will not be an easier one, so you need to vow so it can bind you to endure in your marriage. They are aware of the better and worse things in marriage that you have to face. The funny thing is that, instead of enduring, you see many couples running away from their problems just like Jonah did. Many want the cheaper side and that is why they don’t want to suffer. Love is war and you have to fight and endure. In war, you can lose a hand or a leg. You can even lose your life, yet, it is worth fighting.
Endurance enhances love. It makes love lustrious. It strengthens love and provides a cutting edge. Because of the love, Jesus Christ had for us, He had to endure so many pains. If I was the one who stood
before Pilate at that time, I would have told him point-blank that, I was not the Messiah and they should probably find another Jesus. Dying for mankind who would sin again with all that I had done for them, I couldn’t have died such a death. Looking at such painful moments one had to go through, was what made Peter deny Jesus Christ three times. I believe it was the endurance of the death on the cross that was why no one in heaven was willing to be the Saviour of the world.
•| Prayer Diary |•
¹Lift up prayers for the courage to face challenges that come to test the love you have for God and man. ²Lift up prayers for strength to overpower, overcome and to be victorious over all crisis, persecutions, trials and temptations without renouncing your faith. ³Lift up prayers to be persistent in the faith anytime you are baptised with the baptism of persecution by the Spirit of God. ⁴Lift up prayers for endurance to be consistent in living for the Spirit instead of living according to the flesh in the name of Jesus Christ.
Quote
“If you don’t have the ability to withstand adversities, count yourself out of love”
One-Year Bible Reading Plan
1 Chronicles Chapters 20-23
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© 2021 David Abankwah
David Abankwah 