The School of Love
Even in the heat, love can sweeten what would otherwise be bitter.
📚 Devotional Credit:
Days of Heaven upon Earth by A.B. Simpson
📸 Photo Credit:
Photo from Unsplash
Today’s entry draws us into the quiet classroom of suffering—not as punishment, but as formation. A.B. Simpson reminds us that the God of all grace is shaping our hearts not despite our trials, but through them. The real curriculum isn’t hardship itself—it’s love. And not love as sentiment, but love as endurance, kindness, and Christlikeness under pressure.
The Spirit uses suffering to soften us, deepen us, and root out the shallow self-life that resists humility. This is not a school we would choose, but one through which we are lovingly led. It’s here that the fruit of the Spirit is cultivated—slowly, ripening in conditions the flesh finds unbearable but where the Spirit flourishes.
Simpson connects our growth in love directly to the description in 1 Corinthians 13. Both the opening and closing traits of agape love are about patience and perseverance. Love that bears up under difficulty. Love that keeps giving when it isn’t reciprocated. Love that doesn’t demand to be understood. It is not a love we muster but a love that Christ lives through us—one that can only be learned when we no longer live for ourselves.
The beauty of it all is this: we are not becoming loving in order to earn God's approval. We are learning to yield to the indwelling Christ, who loves perfectly. When we suffer, He loves through us. When we are misunderstood, He bears it with grace. This is the school of love—and He is both the Teacher and the Life within us.
📓 Journal Entry — Voice of the Holy Spirit
Beloved, I have not abandoned you in your affliction—I have entered it with you. The fire you’re feeling is not meant to consume but to refine. In My presence, trials become classrooms, and every discomfort becomes a doorway to deeper communion with Me. I am not watching you from afar to see how well you perform; I am forming My heart in you through every ache and delay.
You wonder how love can endure so much. That is because it was never meant to be drawn from your own well. I am the source. My love suffers long and remains kind. It is not irritable or envious. It doesn’t need to be noticed, and it doesn’t keep score. It simply abides. And because I abide in you, My love now has a vessel through which to endure the wounds of this world with grace.
There is no wasted sorrow when you walk with Me. What the enemy means to harden, I use to soften. What the world calls loss, I shape into eternal gain. The school of love does not end in resignation—it culminates in glory. Let Me love through you today—not by asking you to try harder, but by drawing from what I have already placed within you: My own unshakable heart.
When you suffer well, you are not proving anything—you are displaying Me. For I restore, I secure, I strengthen, and I establish you in the midst of it all. I am your endurance. I am your gentleness. I am the love that never fails.
Scripture References:
1 Peter 5:10; Galatians 2:20; Romans 5:3–5; Romans 6:6–11; 2 Corinthians 4:7–10; 1 Corinthians 13:4–7; Galatians 5:22–25; Philippians 2:13; Colossians 1:27–29; Hebrews 12:10–11; James 1:2–4; John 15:4–5
🪞 Real-Life Analogy
Imagine slowly stirring honey into hot tea. At first, the honey resists, clinging to the spoon. But with patience and gentle movement, it dissolves and transforms the tea—making what was bitter, sweet and soothing.
In the same way, love doesn’t rush in. It enters gently, even into heat. As we yield to the indwelling Christ in the middle of discomfort—during a disagreement, while waiting on a test result, or when responding to someone who’s sharp with us—His love permeates the moment. What might have turned bitter becomes an opportunity to let Jesus love through us in kindness that doesn't draw attention to itself, but quietly transforms the space.
When we yield like that, we’re not trying to copy Christ—we’re trusting Him to be Himself in and through us.
🙏 Prayer of Confidence
Father, thank You for the love that is already mine in Christ. You haven’t left me to figure out how to love well through suffering—you’ve given me the very heart of Jesus. In You, I don’t need to be strong, I just need to yield. So today, in the unseen moments and the hard ones alike, I trust You to love through me. Your grace has secured me. Your Spirit indwells me. Your love will endure in me. Thank You that this is not a performance but a participation in Your life. I rest in that.