Love, the greatest weapon!

The weapons of our warfare are mighty. They will always win! It may not look like a win if you hold it up to the standards of the world around us----humility can appear like weakness to the less discerning, but it is one of the most powerful of our weapons---but the most powerful of all our weapons is love. This is because God Himself is love, and if we allow His love to flow through us, battles are already won before they are even begun. If we look at love as the arsenal, and all the particulars of love as the many weapons we can take from that arsenal, we can see that real love is indeed the most powerful of forces on this earth. In 1Cor 13, we are shown a variety of weaponry at our disposal. The chapter begins with telling us that no matter what we do or how gifted we are if we don't have love it is all nothing. This is how powerful love is. Everything amounts to nothing without love. If we want to win the battles of our lives then we've got to make acquiring love our greatest aim. In order for love to work for us as a weapon, we must learn to wield it like a sword. The swords back in the day were heavy and very difficult to pick up, never mind trying to use them as a weapon with any skill. It would take day after day, week after week of constant training to build the skill level and muscles to a point which would make the swordsman useful in a battle. Love sounds easy because this world has watered it down to just a feeling we experience, but real love is not as easy to walk out as we might think. It is indeed a powerful weapon that wins every battle all the time, and because of this, it can be very difficult to wield properly. It takes day after day and week after week of choosing to love when people have given us no reason to. When someone speaks hurtful things to us, love must cover in order to nullify the sting of the blade the enemy has just thrust at our hearts. That blade has the poison of bitterness and unforgiveness on it, and the only remedy is love that can wash away all that poison. Kindness in the face of cruelty, forgiveness in the face of brutality are powerful weapons for they nullify the results of the wounds the enemy inflicts on us. This battle to love is first waged in our mind and will. We must choose to will ourselves into agreement with God's will no matter how it may go against our nature. When we decide to do what God says to do and act upon it, then we are training our spiritual muscles to react and become strong in love. What happens next is the ability to wield the weapon of love with precision and balance. We begin to recognize what real love is and is not. Clarity comes, spiritual advantage is gained, and strongholds in our lives are destroyed!
Love wins. Always! more later…….