There is nothing - absolutely nothing - that is more important than learning to love. Every other spiritual force derives its action from love.

First Corinthians 13:4-8 paints a perfect picture of how love behaves:

Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy; is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited - arrogant and inflated with pride; it is not rude (unmannerly), and does not act unbecomingly.

Love [God's love in us] does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it - pays no attention to a suffered wrong.

It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances and it endures everything [without weakening].

Love never fails - never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end... (AMP).

Love never fails. Nothing works without it, and there can be no failure with it. It takes faith to believe that love's way will not fail. The natural mind cannot understand that because the natural man is ruled by selfishness.

He believes if you don't look out for number one, no one else will. And, in a sense, he is right. No one else can look out for him. His selfishness shuts the door to the love of God, and he winds up on his own.

But when you practice love by faith and refuse to seek your own, you put the Father into action on your behalf. He will allow no man to do you wrong (1 Chron. 16:22). No weapon that is formed against you will prosper. No one even has the power to hurt your feelings, because you are not ruled by feelings but by God's love.

This love is revolutionary. If we fully understood the great return from living God's love, we'd be competing with each other, each of us trying to love the other more. And without a doubt, everyone would emerge from that competition a winner!

Excerpt permission granted by
Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc.
aka:  Kenneth Copeland Ministries