To Love

Jesus gave two commands, Matthew 22:37-38, "You must love the Lord your God with all of your heart and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: love your neighbor as yourself." Do you love Jesus? Do you love others? These are two questions that seem easy to answer. The first question, do you love Jesus, I would say that most "Christians" would answer yes to, before thinking about it. But how do we show that we love Jesus? John 14:15ff, Jesus says, 'If you love me, obey my commandments...Those who obey my commandments are the ones who love me...All those who love me will do what I say...Anyone who doesn't love me will not do what I say." So do you love Jesus? Do you obey Him? The second part of that command is to love others, this shows that you love Him. The one thing that Jesus required was for you to overflow with love. He was love and He lives in us. So if He is in us then how can we be without love?

Here is an example: Wal-mart has been going through some major remodeling, how many of us have gone through there and acted awful, just because we could not find something right away? If you were one of the people giving the workers a hard time, were you showing love? Or were you telling them that, "it was going to be okay and that they were doing a good job." We can very easily test our love by how we treat the people that wait on us. When you are in a restaurant, do you treat your server good and do they leave your table with a smile, or do they leave frantic and disappointed, feeling like it was their fault you were so unhappy? Every one has a bad day and doesn't get it "right" all of the time, but what is your "most of the time?" When you treat your family member unfairly, do you say that you were wrong and ask for forgiveness, even if it is your 4yr old? These are just a few examples that can very easily test your love level. How did you answer them?

If you love the Lord your God, then you will have a changed life. You do not have to work for your salvation, but there will be a sign that you are changing, because you love Him, because He loved you first. Every time we as Christ followers, walk into a store or sit at a table to eat, the people helping us should love to see us. We should help there day go better and they should want to be around us. Do they? When I was waiting tables, in my younger days, I hated to wait on the Sunday lunch crowd. They had the shortest patients, and the tightest wallets. It should have been the other way around, but it wasn't. What are you saying to the world around you? Do you say, "I love you." Or do you say, "serve me, I am better." What do you way to your family? Do you say, "I love you, let me help you." Or do you say, "I need, I want, I feel...or someone else is more important than you." What do you say to God?

You do not have to be perfect, but He is asking you to at least try. He is commanding you to love. Sometimes it takes learning how to love yourself first. "Love your neighbor as you love yourself", if you do not love your self you cannot love others. This means that you have to forgive yourself for all of the foolish things you have done. But here is a catch, you learn to do this, by getting your mind off of yourself and turning your attention to others. You cannot love yourself, if all you think about is yourself. You can learn to love yourself, if you learn to love others. Isn't that ironic! There was a time, not so long ago, that I was so full of hate that I could not love myself or anyone. In order to start forgiving myself, I had to turn my attention away from myself. I had to start putting others first. It started with my children. Then it was my husband, sorry I had that backwards. Then it went to others and soon I had forgiven myself and I no longer had that hate, filling my every thought. I had to work very hard at loving those who never even did anything to hurt me, much less those who had. I had hurt myself worse than anyone else had hurt me. You show God you love Him by obeying Him. He wants you more than anything else to love. This means love God, love others and love yourself, because He paid a great price for that love. It is the least we can do for Him. Love...