Let it be love that plants the seed.

First Corinthians 13. Christian or not, I think most people know at least one verse to that portion of scripture. There's the part that says basically that without love, you're either annoying, are nothing/meaningless, or have nothing. There's the section that describes the characteristics of love. Then it talks about understanding, how love lasts forever/never fails, and love is the greatest of faith, hope, and love.

I love the last line. It pretty much sums up everything in the first section.
Faith, hope, and love last forever. They never go away. But the greatest is love.

Faith. It's a pretty lofty topic now adays. "Just have faith! And you'll be healed! You need more faith! We must increase our faith! We must have faith to declare the sick are healed! The dead are raised!" All that is well and good, but without love... YOUR FAITH IS NOTHING. Which means even if the person gets up out of their wheelchair and walks, if you don't have love, it means nothing. You can move the mountain of cancer without love. But without love, it is nothing.
Its such a hard concept to grasp because there's fruit. But just because there's fruit to our clouded eyes doesn't mean there's love.
Verses 10-12 take care of that.

Then there's hope. This is for all the dreamers like me out there. Whew. I'm a dreamer. Some of you used to dream that thousands would come and see the Lord. That they would be saved. That they would be restored and live a life of abundance and freedom. You wanted them to be saved because you LOVED them. But now you just want them to come. But when they come, what do you have to offer them now?
NOTHING. You've focused so much on getting them here that you now have no idea what to do with them when they arrive. And so they leave as quick as they came.
Your dreams have crumbled to the ground.
Without love, your hope is nothing.

Then there's love. When you love, guess what you get. love. When you love, guess what you spread. Love. When you love, guess what you get the keys to. EVERYTHING.
So you can either love and get everything. Or do all the other religious crap and have NOTHING, be NOTHING, do NOTHING, and love NO ONE.

It's so easy to say, "Well we should love. That should be our motivation. So, we need love to be our motivation."
I'm sick and tired of hearing people tell people that if we want to see people saved, our motivation needs to be love.
I know people mean good and well when they say that, and its no attack against anyone who ever says that. I've said it PLENTY. But its not something you can just say, "Oh! Ok sooooo from now on my motivation will be love. YAY!"
No. You'll know when you've arrived at love when you love without realizing it. It becomes a way of life. It inhabits everything you do. You smile. You're kind. You are patient. You don't envy. You don't boast. You don't have an attitude. You aren't easily angered. And even if you are, its your fault, so just bite your tongue and don't hold your own agression against someone who is just being innocent and being themselves and had no intentions whatsoever in their heart of making you frustrated. And YES, YOU WILL KNOW THE DIFFERENCE. (Most of the time, LOL).

Love isn't something we can just decide that from now on we're gonna BE better at. We have to GROW better at it. And that's where many fail. We have to grow. We have to give lots and lots and lots of MERCY. BE MERCIFUL. Ask Jesus for His heart. He'll give it to you. Tell Him that you want to- want to love.
Do you actually care about the person in the checkout line? Do you actually care when you see someone hurting and not having the best day? Or do you go about your day? Do you get overly frustrated when that person that talks forever about their personal problems to you stops you when you have somewhere to be? DO YOU EVEN listen? Or do you let love win? Do you care? People need your love more than they need theology. Who cares what they've done. You are exactly LIKE THEM, even if they've "done" "worse" things than you (TO YOU.) You're exactly like them, but in a Jesus suit. He gave you that robe. You didn't purchase it. He gave it to you. Underneath you are exactly like them. I'm sick of the pompous. (This could go on forever so I'll save it for another post and another scripture lol)

Let your dreams rise out of you like a mountain and let the faith to see them happen flow down like a rushing creek.

And let it be love that plants the seed.