New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional

by Paul David Tripp

As I wrote the character qualities of real love, “true, humble, joyful, and perseverant,” that you see in the statement above, my heart was filled with the sadness of conviction. I thought, “My love often fails to be true.” No, I don’t mean true as contrasted with fake. I’m not thinking here of hypocritical “I’m going to act like I love you even though I don’t” love. True here means “straight,” like the kind of arrow a marksman makes sure to pull out of his quiver. He wants a completely straight arrow so that when it leaves the bow, it won’t veer off in the wrong direction. True here means consistent, reliable, and not apt to go in some unloving direction. Sadly, there is still inconsistency in my love. When someone disagrees with me, when someone gets in the way of my plan, when I am forced into an unexpected wait, or when someone gets what I think I deserve, it is very tempting for me to respond in a less-than-loving way. The second word, humble, explains why I respond as I do. I still lack humility. I still tend to make life about my plan, my feelings, my desires, and my expectations. I am still tempted to assess the “good” of a day by whether it pleased me versus whether I pleased God and was loving toward others. I still am tempted to live as if I own my life and still fail to remember that I was bought with a price. And all of this causes love to be burdensome rather than joyful, the third descriptive word. It really is true that when you’re living for you, the call ...