No Minimalist (When It Comes to Love)

 Today's poem-a-day prompt from Robert Lee Brewer @ Writer's Digest

For today's prompt, write a minimum poem. 

I cringed to write today's poem, drawing from

'Love's Room For Improvement'

Help me Lord, to be more than

a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal!!

1 Cor.13:1-8

If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love,

 I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 

2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, 

and if I have a faith that can move mountains,

 but do not have love, I am nothing. 

3 If I give all I possess to the poor 

and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,

[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, 

love is kind. 

It does not envy, 

it does not boast, 

it is not proud. 

5 It does not dishonor others, 

it is not self-seeking, 

it is not easily angered, 

it keeps no record of wrongs. 

6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 

7 It always protects, 

always trusts, 

always hopes, 

always perseveres.

8 Love never fails.

Imagine if God gave only the minimum

of goodness and mercy?!

Instead He left Heaven to the sinner's debt

And break the curse of death and hell...

By speaking uplifting words??

No, by dying a brutal death on a cross!

Love held nothing back but gave His all!

Jesus Paid It All

To give the minimum will always be the giver's loss

A deed performed for duty's sake, a thankless albatross

The key to happiness is not a complicated plan

But is, and has always been love; God first, then fellow man

Love is no thankless joy; the more we give the more we gain

Though its reward is not like the treasure misers maintain

Love startles us with happiness that leaves hearts humbly awed

And filled with incomparable, fathomless peace of God

It is more blessed to give than to receive; can it be

This world groans because of Love's lacking generosity?

Have we become erring experts, defending greed's excuse

Twisting love's tender ties that bind mankind, into a noose?

To give love's minimum will always be the giver's rue

To love only those who love us, even the pagans do

Oh, God, make our happiness and heart's desire burn

With love's invested maximum of Eternal Return

Janet Martin

May the song below  be our life-prayer🙏💕

More Love To Thee

How Deep The Father's Love For Us...

Perpetual Appeal

 A portion of some Psalm-reading...

from chapters 16-20...

and today's devotion from My Utmost for His Highest,

are part of what inspired today's prayer-poem,

because if I am honest and because God sees my heart

He knows my most earnest need...more love for Thee

With reverence and awe and praise

Honing humility

I have one plea, Lord, all my days

Increase my love for Thee

With wonder for Your love for me

Bid me heed Thy command

And keep my eyes fixed upon Thee

And joys at Thy right hand

Guard me from that which blinds desire

To pleasures evermore

The heat of love's refining fire

Oh, let me not abhor

Lord, let me unswervingly hold

To Thy judgments so true

For they are dearer than fine gold,

Sweeter than honey too

Open my eyes to see anew

That which should be most dear

And lest I have gods before You

Increase beholden fear

Lord, let the power of Thy word

Be all the strength I seek

And let the life Thy death incurred

Make every motive meek

Without complaint or dread, bid me

Take up my cross with praise

And a vision of Calvary

Always before my gaze

How great the loss, should I pursue

Anything else beside

And strive to fill my need for You

With selfishness and pride

Thus, as I think upon these things

Lord, hear my humble plea

In whatever this new day brings

Increase my love for Thee

Amen

© Janet Martin

So sharing this often-before-shared hymn seems fitting...

More Love to Thee

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience” (James 1:2-3).

Endless Good aka Everlasting Love

The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying:

 “I have loved you with an everlasting love; 

I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.

Jer.31:3

Everlasting; adj. 

infinite, never-ending, eternal, immortal, abiding, perpetual, timeless, unending, enduring

How heartbreaking to  never move beyond the point of seeing God

simply as a kill-joy and rule giver, though we all want and need love

His greatest command!

How pitiful/terrible is the belief in the existence of Him

without the joy of the love from and for Him!!

The Love of God

(I've shared this song many times because I love it so much)

Ah, every good and perfect gift comes down from up above

From He who does not shift or change His everlasting love

Then cast your care on Him and trust in Him with all your heart

Receive the endless good in which unbelief has no part

…and pray the Lord, for love’s increase, the greatest gift He grants

Is like a glorious masterpiece in every circumstance

To anchor faith and hope, so doubt does not cause us to be

Like double-minded men, unstable as waves of the sea

Oh, what a precious family is the family of God

Whose trust is not in what we see but in His faithful word

His promises more dear than anything this world can boast

Like a wellspring of endless good unto the uttermost

For every good and perfect gift comes down from up above

And nothing can deplete the measure of love’s treasure trove

Where, as the love of God becomes alive in you and I

His joy is like a fountain that no sorrow can run dry

…no matter what befalls, love bears us up to bear all things

Christ in us makes love able to suffer all that life brings

Then, though we do not know what waits, Love none can comprehend

Through He who WAS, IS and WILL BE is faithful without end

Janet Martin  

everlasting adj.

abiding

eternal

immortal

lasting

perpetual

abiding

eternal

immortal

lasting

perpetual

timeless

unending

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing