The Power Of Love

The Power of Love

If I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:3

PAUL WROTE A LOT about powerful spiritual gifts, mountain-moving faith, and sacrificial service that advances God’s Kingdom on earth. And he exemplified a ministry of strong words and miraculous works in his efforts to spread the good news of the Kingdom throughout the ancient world. But all of those words and works would have counted for nothing, he said, if love had not been behind them. Of faith, hope, and love, the last is the greatest (1 Corinthians 13:13). In fact, faith and hope are rooted in and can only bear fruit in the soil of love.

That tells us a lot about the mindset behind our prayers. We often ask God to do amazing things because we need to feel fulfilled, to be somebody, to be pulled out of a desperate situation, to prove a point, to fulfill our responsibilities as praying people, or even to accomplish his will. None of these motives disqualifies us from praying, but if love is not ultimately behind our prayers—if it is not the energy or the driving force that moves us to pray—we will often be disappointed over our fruitlessness. It isn’t because God doesn’t honor faith, hope, or the purposes of his Kingdom; it’s that faith, hope, and the purposes of his Kingdom are rooted in his nature, which is fundamentally love. Nowhere are we told that God is faith, hope, or righteousness (though he is certainly faithful, hopeful, and righteous). But we are told that God is love (1 John 4:8, 16). It’s who he is by nature. So if our prayers are going to be rooted in his nature, they must be rooted in, saturated in, and driven by love.

That is not a burdensome condition, but it does require us to change the way we think—to “repent” into a Kingdom worldview that seeks no advancement that isn’t thoroughly loving. Our hearts need to shift their focus from our agenda for people, no matter how spiritual it is, to our deep compassion for them. When this replaces the nervous, fearful, desperate, needy, power-focused, pseudo-spiritual energy behind our prayers, the atmosphere of the Kingdom in our lives becomes much more fruitful. Our prayers begin to flourish in a climate of love.

He who is filled with love is filled with God himself.