Walking In Love - How Hard Did You Look?

"Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;"
1 Corinthians 13:4-5 (NKJV)

When you lose or misplace something, you usually look for it until you find it.  How hard you look for something depends on how much you want to find it.  For example, one time I misplaced my passport.  If I am not carrying my passport with me, there is one place I usually keep it, and when I could not find my passport, I looked as soon as I could, every place that I could, until I found it.  But, if I had lost an old pen, I would not bother looking for that, because it has no real value to me.

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul talked about what real love is and how love acts.  One characteristic of love is seen in 1 Corinthians 13:5 where it tells us that loves "does not seek its own".  In other words, love does not seek what it wants, love seeks what others want and need.  If you are really walking in love and displaying the love of God towards someone, you are not focused on what you want, you are interested in what the other person is interested in and you are looking for the things they are looking for.

In the area of walking in love, how hard do we look to help others and meet the needs of others compared to our own?  Are we only seeking what benefits us, or are we considering others and seeking what is best for them, regardless of our own interests?  If things were reversed, how much would we want others to help us find what we are looking for?  True love helps others find what they are looking for; this is an area that we can all develop in.