Faith, Courage, Strength and Love

      I was scrolling through Facebook this morning and found this quote from 1Corinthians (16:13-14)

"Be alert, stand firm in the faith, be brave and strong. Your every [action] must be done with love (HCSB)."
This quote just struck me, especially the last verse.  "Your every action must be done with love."  Wow.  Can you imagine how different your life might be if you took this quote to heart and followed that directive?  During this season of Thanks and Giving, it might be a worthy challenge.  Let your every action be done with love.  Not the sappy, superficial kind of love, but the deep down kind of love.  That kind of love can only come from the deepest reaches of your heart.  The love that all of us are capable of, for another living soul.  Could you do that - perform every action with love?  While I think the idea is a good one it would be hard.   Could you perform a difficult task with love in your heart?  Even if it means that there might be consequences?  That is what the early Christians like those in Corinth faced all the time.  That's where the first part of the quote comes in I think.  "Be alert, stand firm in the faith, be brave and strong." I think Paul was trying to let the people of Corinth know that in order to perform actions with love, you have to be firm in your faith.  You have to be alert to things that could draw you away from your mission and that often times it takes courage and strength to perform your every action with love.
     We have come a long way since Paul wrote to the church in Corinth.  As humans, we still have challenges and uphill climbs, but I think on the whole our life circumstances are a little better.  We have other barriers that keep us from acting out with love.   I would encourage you to take Paul's quote and run with it.  If you have faith, strength and courage how can you lose?  God doesn't require us to have any more than a mustard seed's worth of faith to accomplish any task.  Add to that a little courage to stand up to the "nay" sayers and the strength to push on through and accomplish your tasks and challenges  with love.  Think of all that you could accomplish!  See how many actions you can perform from now on through the holiday season with love.  I want to know how it goes!  Cheers!