The "Love Bug" hit me pretty hard today. No, it's not what you are thinking. When I say the Love Bug hit me, it means that
feeling from deep inside me that reminds me I have not been very loving toward
others. Make no mistake, the Lord
commands and expects us to be a loving people.
We remember how Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love
God.....and the 2nd is like it. We are
to love others as we love ourselves.
The easy one for us to do is to love God, or at least that
is the easiest one for us to say. Words
come easy when we are speaking of an intangible feeling being expressed to an
invisible God. We can say we love him a
thousand times a day, but unless we learn to love God as a response to his love
for us, we will never grasp the importance of the greatest commandment.
The second commandment Jesus talked about involved loving
each other, and that one gets difficult.
We have difficulty loving everyone, especially those who obviously do
not love us. Looking from one end of
God's Word to the other, I find no instance that gives me the a personal
responsibility of choosing those I wish to love, and excluding those I wish not
to love. The commands of loving God and
loving each other are clear and plain.
Sometime later, in the book of 1 John, he gives strong
encouragement for us in loving each other when he says, "Dear children, let us
not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth."
The question we face today is the one I tried to answer when
that Love Bug hit me and made me realize the number of people I see every day
that do not know I love them or even care about them. That question is how do we show our love with
actions and truth?
Think with me how your actions and mine can demonstrate the
love we are commanded to have toward others.
I will mention several things, but I am confident you can add more and
perhaps even greater ways we can let the world's people know how much we care
for them.
There are some obvious things we can do like, mailing a post
card or making a phone call, just to let someone know we are thinking of
them. More specific things can also
happen like being a volunteer to help distributing aid to communities that have
experienced flooding or other storm calamities. When we are involved in those things, it
becomes easier to do more personal, one on one encounters. Showing love and concern for others like that
could include things like taking a box of groceries to a home where you know
the family is struggling. Stop by the
hospital or nursing home and visit a total stranger. Let them know you are praying for them. I've also found, anything you do for kids, to
show your love for them, has a great impact on the entire family.
Let the Love Bug bite you.....often. Be aware of those in your community that need
to be ministered to with whatever help you can give. Show them Jesus in your
life as you bring his love into theirs. God bless.
<ronbwriting@yahoo.com>
No comments:
Post a Comment