New Verse About Love

I get so excited when I find new verses in the bible. I pray that God will show me something new or speak to me in a new way when I am reading.
I didn't know what to read tonight so God really laid 2 Timothy on my heart and I ended up reading 2 Timothy 4.
The apostle Paul, as most of you know, was persecuted and went through more trials and struggles than we will ever have to deal with in our lives. In the last chapter he says that many of the men with him deserted him or left to go to different places because they loved the "present world". And then in verse 16 Paul says, "At my first defense, no one came to my assistance, but everyone deserted me. May it not be counted against them. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me...".

I think that is SO encouraging and convicting because, even though those men left Paul alone even while he went/had gone through so much persecution and so many struggles that could make Paul want to give up too, he says he does not want anything to be counted against them! Think of how much love that had to take for Paul to truly say that and think that in his heart. I would have been so bitter, angry and grouchy towards those men and about my life. But Paul knows that the Lord will always stand by him and he still wants to love those men anyways because that's Christ's love for us, even when we abandon Christ.

It opened my eyes to more love and a different angle on it from Paul and his heart for Jesus.