Love never fails

"Love never fails . As for prophecies, they will become obsolete; as for tongues, they will have to stop; as for knowledge, it will pass away in its current remit."

1 Corinthians 13:8

Sometimes I wonder how could the most sung about emotion  be so little understood in practice.
We hear about friends and acquaintances, who got divorced, in spite of being so much in love before. We see  parents, who barely have any relationship with their grown up children. Brothers and sisters, who fight each other over material stuff is a bad sight too. 
As Christians  we would be wise to bear in mind that the measure we allowed the love of God to work in us and change us would determine how close to God we would be in this life. If we want God to be on our side we  need to excel in love. A sign, that the love from God is in us, is its presence, when our interests or ego are challenged. Can I be happy for the fellow minister, Christian or even unbeliever who acted selfishly and arrogantly, but there is something good that has happened to them? Can I be sad, when they experience serious set backs? Surely they need to change something in their ways, but love does not rely on one changing in  order  to wish him/her good. It never fails to be itself. Prophecy can encourage you and guide you towards God's best  in your life, but once fulfilled - its obsolete. At some point in eternity, prophecy as a practice would be made redundant because it has achieved its goal on Earth. Speaking in tongues also benefits us  for the moment, but it is not a goal in itself. It is means towards a goal: to build up ourselves in Christ and we know that means love in the first place. Christ is loving one above anything else. Knowledge, although useful now, would stop because the full knowledge would be available to us, when we are in and with God in heaven. The only distinctly enduring trait and characteristic that would remain with us is our ability to love. 
May be you can sit down and think: do I show enough love to my spouse, children, brother, sister and others? How can I be more loving? The moment you ask these questions you tap into God's nature and demonstrate desire  to be like God. At that very moment your prayer is listened to and fulfilled.

My heavenly Father, 
I did not and still don't love the way I should. I know it is not my merely human effort that makes it happen but your work in me. Please, work in me and bring me to love more as Christ does: fully, unconditionally, bravely and transformingly enough for me and the world around me . 
In Jesus' Name! Amen!