BIBLE PASSAGE(s):
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.
Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
(1 John 4:7)
And He has given us this command:
Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
(1 John 4:21)
MEDITATION:
If you conducted a survey and asked people
“What is the most important emotion missing in the world?”
most would probably respond with, “Love”.
Even though it doesn’t cost anything, love is something that many
people want, but not so many are ready to give. Why would anyone
want to hold on to something that Jesus freely gave to all people?
He didn’t withhold it because someone seemed undeserving; He
gave it to all without exceptions.
Why would Jesus do that? Because He has a genuine love for everyone
and He went to the cross to prove it. It is also a characteristic that He
desires in those who are called His followers. Believers should always
be identified as loving individuals.
Since Jesus chose to love, then what could possibly exempt Christians
from loving as well? We might restrict our love to family members and
close friends, but Jesus loved even His enemies. That’s the pattern He
established for His followers. If we are followers of Jesus, we should
ask ourselves,
“How wide is my love and do I make any efforts to
express love toward those outside of my inner circle?”
Satan wants to convince us that we would express love and encouragement
to others, but it’s too awkward. How awkward is it to send a card of love or
a text of encouragement to someone we may not know very well? Satan wants
us to believe that they won’t appreciate it or think we are weird and throw the
card away or delete the text without responding.
If they do, what is that to us? We have been shown that Jesus went in the
opposite direction of the influences of Satan and we can do the same thing.
Will we be constrained by Satan, or encouraged by Jesus? It is a question
we must consider and then make a choice of which one we will please.
Like many Christians, I also struggle with sin, but I’ve found that
even though we fail the Lord in many ways, He can still use us for
His purposes. I also know the uncomfortable feeling of reaching
out in love to others we may not even know, or barely know.
Over the years, the Lord has encouraged me to reach out to some
others when quite honestly it wasn’t something I had even thought
about and didn’t look forward to doing. I had the devotional He gave
me for today ready to distribute, but I felt He wanted me to add three
testimonies of when He called me to do what was uncomfortable. Please
understand these are not meant to shine any light in my direction, but
to show how God works when He uses us for His purposes.
I heard about someone in our neighborhood who had a terminal disease.
I didn’t know the person or their relationship with the Lord, but I created
cassette tapes of some songs that helped me through some difficult times,
and to avoid any awkwardness for them, or me, I went to their house late
one night and tied a sack with the tapes to their front door with a note that
didn’t include my name. I never asked and never heard from anyone if they
listened to the tapes, but I knew God must have used them in some way.
On another occasion, the husband of a vice-president of the company where
I worked, committed suicide. I had never had a conversation with the VP and
knew it was risky to discuss anything regarding faith, but I felt compelled by
the Lord to reach out to her with an email (which meant I couldn’t hide my
identity). Without sharing the details of her response, it was obvious that the
Lord spoke to her in some way (and I didn’t get into trouble with HR).
Another VP’s husband was killed by a prostitute which exposed a hidden
part of his life to her, in addition to losing him. I had one brief conversation
with her before this happened and again felt the Lord wanted me to reach
out to her with another risky email. I did what I felt God wanted me to do
and her response also assured me that the Lord was having an impact on
her life. Later, she developed breast cancer. and I reached out to her again.
Still later, my wife developed breast cancer. and she reached out to us and
met us for lunch so we could have a face-to-face conversation. God knew
these three events (one for us and two for her) would happen and he had
plans to use them for His purposes.
When we look at history, we find that people didn’t always try
to love people into having the same beliefs as them. Instead, we
see examples of man’s inhumanity to mankind. We can see the
instruments of torture that were used by religious people to try
force others to believe as they did.
We see this kind of treatment by some religious groups today.
Some not only torture those who have different beliefs, but
they even murder them if they don’t succumb to their beliefs.
This is diametrically opposed to what Jesus taught to those
who claim to have faith in Him.
Love is a stark contrast to coercion and that is why those who
follow Jesus should be easy to identify. We are called to have a
vertical love (for God) and a horizontal love (for our fellow men
and women). Love is a free commodity with an inexhaustible supply.
We could all agree that we will have to make changes in our attitudes
if we expect to be known as a loving person. Things like bitterness,
anger, deceit, gossip, arrogant pride, rudeness and being judgmental
can greatly inhibit our ability to express love and encouragement to
others.
All our attitudes need to be governed by love if we are going to freely love
others, and love God. The scriptures tell us that when we love each other,
our relationship with God is on full display. Why? Because we are told that
“love comes from God”.
That means we are His conduit for love to pass from Him through us and
into the lives of others. If we withhold our love, then we are blocking the
love God wants to express to others through us. None of us want to hear
God say at the judgment,
“I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”
(Matthew 7:23b)
ACTION:
Questions to consider:
– What attitudes are preventing me from loving others as I should?
– How strong is my love for God?
– Do I meet the qualifications the scriptures
have outlined as a requirement for loving God?
– Have I truly given Him control of my life, or do I have a
tight grip on some things that I have refused to yield to Him?
Pray,
“Heavenly Father, thank You for Your undeniable love for me.
Help me to love others as you love me. Show me which attitudes
are preventing me from loving others as I should. Reveal to me
the things in my life that I have not given to You. Fill my heart
and mind with the kind of love Jesus displayed. He showed us
how to love vertically and horizontally. Help me to have the
same compassion as Your Son, Jesus Christ.”
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