1 Corinthians 14:1a in the Amplified says, “Eagerly pursue and seek to acquire (this) love (make it your aim, your great quest…” Agape love is the evidenced fruit of the Spirit when we are controlled by the Holy Spirit. We cannot agape in our flesh. Flesh and agape are like oil and water. They do not homogenize. 

John 15:12 says, “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” Loving others with God’s love touches the heart. We have His love the moment we are saved. Romans 5:5 says, “…the love of God has been poured in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

We cannot love the unthankful in our own strength. Luke 6:35 says, “…For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.” How can we emulate the Lord’s love? Galatians 5:16 says, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”

I’m writing this on the heels of listening to a message that brought deep conviction. Do my words and actions always portray His agape love? The word ‘love’ in 1 Corinthians 13 is agape. I encourage you to read it, inserting agape instead of love. Verse 13 says, “And now abide faith, hope, and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

I love conviction. It messes up my life. It shakes me out of complacency that I didn’t know I had. It reaches down into the ruts that I didn’t know I was stuck in. It brings course correction. When we embrace the Holy Spirit’s conviction, it keeps our feet on His path, so that we won’t get derailed down the road.

Psalm 119:2 says, “Blessed are those who keep (guard) His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart!” Complacency, ruts, lethargy, hidden sins, etc., block our capacity to be single-minded and wholehearted.

Who are your enemies? They are folks who are bound by satan to do his will. 2 Timothy 2:26. Psalm 119:98 says, “You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; for they are ever with me.”

I used to read this as the enemies are ever with me, until I was meditating on this verse. God’s commandments are ever with us when we keep them; laying them up as treasure in our hearts.

Let’s follow one commandment. Matthew 5:44 says, “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.” The word ‘love’ is agape ~ God’s love that never fails.

Jesus commissioned us as His ambassadors. 2 Corinthians 5:20 says, “…as though God were pleading through us…” Satan’s captives will not hear us unless His love shines through our words and actions.

In Psalm 119 there are many verses that use the word keep. There are two definitions. One is to guard and preserve. Psalm 119:69 says, “The proud have forged a lie against me, but I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart.”

The other is to lay up in the heart as treasures. Psalm 119:67 says, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word.” Same word, two different uses. Both affect the heart which is the seat of our emotions.

There is much fruit that glorifies the Lord when we memorize and meditate on Scripture. It is the love language of His heart. He has given it to us to lay up as treasure. Matthew 6:21 says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” I know verse 20 says to lay up treasure in heaven, but we can make an application for right now ~ living in the present.

We are slaves whom we obey. We obey the Lord because we love Him. Jesus is our example. John 15:10 says, “…just as I have kept My Father’s commandment and abide in His love.”

Exodus 21:5. Context is a Hebrew servant that was given their freedom. It says, “But if the servant plainly says, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free.” We are free to sin, however, out of love we obey from the heart.

How is your heart? The Holy Spirit gave me seven ebooks in 2016 about the heart. It became the paperback “Victorious Heart.” What pictures are on the walls of your heart? Chapter two is entitled “Heart Interior Decorating.” The pictures in our heart dictate our words and our actions. It might be time to take down some of those time honored offenses that have enslaved us.

Jesus’ death on the cross broke the chains that bound us to satan’s slave block of sin. Romans 6:1-2 says, “…Shall we continue to sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”

Slaves obey without question. We are slaves to sin or to obedience. The path of obedience is strewn with grace. We obey in our heart, but the Holy Spirit empowers us through grace to fulfill what the Lord requires of us.

Meditating on the truths from God’s word, weaves those truths into the fabric of our hearts. Memorizing takes concentration. It is a dedicated time set aside to lay up the treasure of His word in our heart. Let me challenge you with Psalm 119:4 which says, “You have commanded us to keep Your precepts diligently.” A command is a call to obedience.

I have been working on memorizing Romans 6. The only way I can get a verse to stick is to repeat it over and over in phrases. I was on verse 16. It says, “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness.”

As I kept repeating “…sin leading to death, or of obedience…” it hit me hard. Tears came into my eyes as the Holy Spirit highlighted the either or. It is either sin or obedience. Translated to either we are walking in our flesh or in the Spirit.

Years ago someone challenged something that was in my book. They said, “Marilyn, you cannot be so black or white.” The Bible is. Romans 6 testifies to its distinctness one way or the other. There is no middle ground ~ no gray areas.

Do you struggle with getting ahead of God? Do you have a hard time waiting for His impeccable timing? In 1 Samuel 15, Saul disobeyed God’s command and lost his kingdom. How much have we forfeited by stepping out to do, when we need to be sitting in His Presence being?

Wait. Be silent. Stand still. These are commands that cause our hidden flesh of impatience to rise and take matters into its own hands. When we are required to wait, we need to lay down a pathway of Scripture to walk on, so we don’t get derailed from God’s intended purpose.

Here are a few of my “waiting” anchor verses. Psalm 62:5 says, “My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him.” Isaiah 64:4 says, “…Who acts for the one who waits for Him.” Another favorite is 2 Samuel 5:24. David had to wait until he heard the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees before he could advance.

Do you struggle with self-hatred? I did for years. That hidden stronghold colored every thought. It was set up to defeat my faith. How can we serve the Lord with gladness, when in our deep inner being we are bound in the trap of self-hatred?

Self-hatred is like a megaphone that shouts out lies against the truths of Scripture. One of mine was that “Yes, God truly loves others, but He can’t love me. I’m the exception.” Isaiah 5:13 says, “Therefore my people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge…”

Not being grounded in the truth of God’s love leaves us as a sitting duck in the site of a gun. 1 John 4:9 says that God is love. His very nature is love. Everything He has done is borne out of His love for us. Romans 8:38-39 says that it can never be taken away ~ another stepping stone of truth. Wield your sword!

Do you struggle with anger? Lay out Scripture like stepping stones in a pathway. Ephesians 4:26 says, “Be angry, and do not sin: do not let the sun go down on your wrath.” When we go to sleep still angry, we have bought into the devil’s lie and disobeyed God’s word.

Disobedience to God’s word, opens the opportunity for the devil to gain ground to set up an inner stronghold. The only thing that tears down strongholds is God’s word. 2 Corinthians 10:4.

When you start to feel anger, bring James 1:20 into your mind like a battle sword. You step out onto that stepping stone and swing by proclaiming the word, “For the wrath of man does not promote the righteousness of God.” 

Anger is the fruit of unforgiveness or jealousy. In Genesis 4:6 God asked Cain why he was so angry. Verse 7 says, “…sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”