THE SPONTANEITY OF LOVE by Oswald Chambers

[b]THE SPONTANEITY OF LOVE[/b]

"Love suffereth long, and is kind . . ." 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Love is not premeditated, it is spontaneous, i.e., it bursts up in extraordinary ways. There is nothing of mathematical certainty in Paul's category of love. We cannot say - "Now I am going to think no evil; I am going to believe all things." The characteristic of love is spontaneity. We do not set the statements of Jesus in front of us as a standard; but when His Spirit is having His way with us, we live according to His standard with out knowing it, and on looking back we are amazed at the disinterestedness of a particular emotion, which is the evidence that the spontaneity of real love was there. In everything to do with the life of God in us, its nature is only discerned when it is past.

The springs of love are in God, not in us. It is absurd to look for the love of God in our hearts naturally, it is only there when it has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

If we try to prove to God how much we love Him, it is a sure sign that we do not love Him. The evidence of our love for Him is the absolute spontaneity of our love, it comes naturally. In looking back we cannot tell why we did certain things, we did them according to the spontaneous nature of His love in us. The life of God manifests itself in this spontaneous way because the springs of love are in the Holy Ghost. (Romans 5:5.)

When I think of Love in a human I think of the Apostle John.

Seldom do we think of Paul as we do of John - though Paul's my hero and did write much on love - Paul's same love as John's was used in a different way. He was more firey - yet when it came to the Deity of Christ and the subject of love - John topped them all with the fire of Love on those two doctrines - proving His Love manifests according to His calling.
How the prophets of old Loved Israel - yet such firey words - but no more tender consolation can be found, then from these same men - as it was with Jesus. The fire of GOD's Love - His omniscience, caring for the long-term affects on souls - things that we cannot see and not for itself to be loved in return for it's labors.
How selfless they are were.

Praise GOD - Jesus is LORD!