I recently listend to a message from a pastor in California who suggested inserting our own name into a passage of Scripture. Here’s how it would read for me…
If Ron speaks in the tongues of men and of angels, but has not love, he is a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if Ron has prophetic powers, and understands all mysteries and all knowledge, and if Ron has all faith, so as to remove mountains, but has not love, he is nothing. If Ron gives away all he has, and if he delivers up his body to be burned, but doesn’t have love, he gains nothing. Ron is patient and kind; Ron does not envy or boast; Ron is not arrogant or rude. Ron does not insist on his own way; Ron is not irritable or resentful; Ron does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Ron bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
That is a different rendering of 1 Corinthians 13:1-7… but the meaning is much more powerful to me personally when I put my name in it. When I read 1 Cor 13 that way, I got convicted. I began to wonder if others would describe me in those terms? I’m not sure they would (And I’m not going to ask!).
Try putting your name in 1 Corinthians 13 and then spend some time reflecting on what God reveals to you….