Love Does Not Seek Its Own (by John Piper)

"Love does not seek its own."

I don't think this means that it is wrong to want to be happy. Because in verse 3 Paul argues that if you don't love, it profits you nothing. So it's not wrong to want the right kind of profit. What he's saying is that love does not seek its own personal, private preference without reference to what may be good for other people. Love seeks its joy and its profit in the good of others, not just in private gratification.

When Paul says, "Love seeks not its own," he is not saying that you shouldn't stand up for your own convictions—he died for his convictions. He is saying that you must be sure that the strength of your conviction is in proportion to the conviction being God's not just yours. To the degree that your preference is yours and not compellingly found in God's Word, to that degree should you be slow to seek it, and slow to get angry when others don't share it. "Love seeks not its own." It seeks the good of the many, not just the comfort of self.

So if we are going to love, we are going to have to die to "our own." Love seeks not its own. What does it do? It dies to its own. "Unless a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die it remains alone, but if it dies [to its own] it bears much fruit."

Therefore glorify God in your body and do not satisfy the lusts of your flesh...

I have been WRESTLING lately with so much SIN!
Such a sinful girl and so unaware of it until very recently... o the extent of my depravity! These respectable DAILY sins and things I am so accostomed to doing without conviction.

Our heavenly Father SEES what is done in secret and rewards us accordingly.
He is also a jealous God... of ANYTHING that I love more than Him.
Any thing I want more than I want to obey Him....

Do I want to speed or send and read text messages rather than obey His Word when he tells me to submit to the governing authorities?

Do I want to complain and vent rather than obey His Word when he tells me to do everything without complaining? O but I really just need to right now... I want to.

Do I want to slouch, criticize, text and talk through class rather than be a light in a dark place and walk displaying a changed heart? Or are my unregenerate classmates more honoring in their behavior?

Do I want just something else to munch on more than I desire to display His Spirits fruit in my life and be self controlled? Do I desire buying an afternoon coffee or treat more than I desire to honor Him with my finances?

Do I want to hug and hold my wonderful fiance just one minute more or do I want to keep myself from even a hint of sexual immorality, help him, and keep my thoughts on Phil 4:8- what is PURE and lovely, honorable and fitting???

O these questions! O these areas that have LONG been inconsistencies in my life in need of addressing... I am GLAD to serve a jealous God who doesn't want me to want these fleeting pleasures more than I desire to obey His wonderful Word!

I have been SAVED out of this wretched behavior that I maintain for so long. The conviction is here.... Please encourage me, do not let me be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin in these small areas. May I CHOOSE to obey God and never choose the fleeting pleasure of sin.

awww Tim....

This morning getting ready- I was listening to Tim McGraw sing about the problem we all face with our sin nature.... Tim blames it and says- 'I Guess thats just the cowboy in me..." It honestly made me SAD to hear it... It shows the gospel and the law of God is written on the hearts of men, but what is the conclusion of man apart from the revalation of truth in the Word? No Tim, its not the cowboy in you, its the SINNER in you! Its the sinful nature in all of us, our natural bent that we are no longer enslaved to because of the glorious news of the gospel!

"We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin." (Rom 6:6)

Tim McGraw- The Cowboy in Me
I don't know why I act the way I do
Like I aint got a single thing to lose
Sometimes Im my own worst enemy
I guess thats just the cowboy in me

I got a life that most would love to have
But sometimes I still wake up fighting mad
At where this road Im heading down might lead
I guess thats just the cowboy in me

The urge to run, the restlessness
The heart of stone I sometimes get
The things Ive done for foolish pride
The me thats never satisfied
The face thats in the mirror when I dont like what I see
I guess thats just the cowboy in me

I have been divinely gifted with grace

No God but Allah???

1 Cor 8:6
"Yet for us there is but ONE God, the Father, from whom all things came and FOR whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and THROUGH whom we live!"

I seriously want to write a song. O LORD there is no one like you!
http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-nAdVWDtmU&feature=related

This is beautiful.

"For all things are yours. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future- all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's." (1 Cor 3:21-22)

Matthew Henry says:
Observe the spiritual riches of a true believer: All are yours, even ministers and ordinances. Nay the world itself is yours. Saints have as much of it as Infinite Wisdom sees fit for them. Life is yours, that you may have season and opportunity to prepare for heaven, and death is yours, that you may go to the possession of it. Things present are yours, to support you on the road; and things to come are yours, to delight you forever at your journey's end. If we belong to Christ, and are true to Him- all good things belong to us. God in Christ, reconciling a sinful world to himself, and pouring out the riches of his grace on the reconciled world, is the sum and substance of the gospel.

Im engaged!

"If we are faithless, He remains faithful for he cannot deny himself." (2 Tim 2:13)


I got engaged this past Sunday, July 5th! WOW- what a privilege. I have since been contemplating marriage and reading a little about unfaithful brides (Ezekial 16, Jeremiah 3, Hosea 2...) Faithfulness is a beautiful thing to study and maybe one of the strongest attributes of God that we often miss. He IS faithfulness, regardless of our halfhearted committment. I hope to be a faithful bride to my new husband and also to my first husband, Christ!


OK, so the brides. ;) They all have in common that they have THE perfect husband, but they are still not content!

"Thus says the Lord- What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness and became worthless?" (Jeremiah 2:5)

Not a thing wrong! IMPOSSIBLE! Christ is the only perfect man who STILL cannot keep our attention. We are SICK people. I love Jer 3:19- it is a SIN for us to forsake seeking Him! "Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God."


They are filled with needs, lusts, and idolatry. In Hosea 2- 'For she said- I will go after my lovers who give me my bread and my water, my wool, and my flax, my oil and my drink..." Forsaking the fountain of LIVING water for these lovers, forsaking food that truly SATISFIES (Isaiah 55:1-2) God please make me filled, satisfied, and content with you alone.


THIS is love:
"Go again, loving a woman who is an adulterous, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, thought they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins." (Hosea 3:1)


Lord... this love blows my mind.... May I remember your undying, faithful, covenant love forever and ever. May I sing praise to you and have a heart that draws near to you! Amen.


SO FUNNY! Right after I wrote this, I checked out a friends blog and she had this O SO FITTING sermon posted from Piper entitled- The tragic cost of her cavernous thirst. Check it out: http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2009/3999/