Dave Havir - The Greatest of These is Love

Dave Havir reminds us that faith, hope, and love will last when everything else perishes. The greatest of these three is love. Contrasting genuine love with artificial love, we recognize that artificial love is characterized by good words without correct action. Good deeds without love are equally useless. We need to analyze our validation to see whether we are self-driven or God-driven. Never saying “No” does not represent righteousness, but may be motivated by guilt. Christ does not say “Yes” to every request. True love is governed by boundaries. We must assert our personal, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual boundaries so we do not lose control of our lives by letting the bad in and the good out. We can set boundaries and still be a loving person. God gives us room and honors our choices, and He will use our own words to justify or correct us, allowing us to reap the consequences of our own actions. Setting boundaries indicate a position of strength, useful for establishing family relationships, work relationships, community relationships, and even our relationship with Almighty God, defined with reference to the boundaries of a covenant.

Actions * Anxiety disorders * Artificial giving * Artificial hope * Avoidant person * Artificial love * Boundaries Cloud Townsend * Boundaries * Bowels of compassion * Cloud, Henry * Compliant person * Controller * Depression * Door mat * Faith and hope * Feelings * Genuine love * Good in and bad out * Loving God * Loving our neighbor * Manipulation * Marjorie Sharp * True love * Me and not me * Mental boundaries * Physical boundaries * Power of choice * Resisting evil * Sacrifices * Spiritual boundaries * Taking responsibility * To and for * Townsend, John