A heart that lacks love is useless for God
A clanging cymbal or noisy gong, a sounding brass 1 Corinthians 13:1
Jesus tells us the love of many shall wax cold
What is the gospel without love
for the gospel of Christ is love
How can we become like Jesus without love?
If we have not love, we are useless, good for nothing,
including not being able to commune with the Lord God
If we look at the opposite of love, which is hate,
foul bitterness, unforgiveness and pride
or lack of humility before God
We may justify hatred
We, in our flesh, have reasons or excuses
as to why we choose not to love
The world tells us to be happy,
so if someone makes us unhappy, then, we may cut them off
even if the Lord Jesus is calling us to love them
The bible does allow for division
let division be when two are unequally yoked together,
or for any other biblical reason,
but not because of a lack of love
Some people you may love from afar
That is between you and God,
Still, keep that love warm
It may be the very person you want to avoid
is a sharpening tool the Lord has allowed to be a part of your life
so that you can become a better person
Iron sharpeneth iron;
so a man sharpeneth
the countenance of his friend. Proverbs 27:17
That really is between you and God,
but do not avoid the subject with Him
That may cause a hardening of your heart
We can gain a little insight about our hearts getting hard
by looking at what Jesus said in response to divorce:
Divorce was given for the hardness of your hearts:
He saith unto them,
Moses because of the hardness of your hearts
suffered you to put away your wives:
but from the beginning it was not so. Matthew 19:8
In other words, If you allow your hearts to be hard,
God gave us an out, but that was not His perfect design
We all know what unforgiveness can do to our hearts
and God forbid hatred enters in
It is like a step-by-step process
First unforgiveness,
then bitterness,
then hatred
Once hatred sets in, it is much harder to remedy
At that point, the person has judged
and allowed their hearts to become vile and filled with hate
Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer:
and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. 1 John 3:15
I know this from experience
Growing up, I had a very difficult relationship with my mother
When I became a Christian,
there were many things the Lord had to work on with me
one of them was hate
I was praying with a friend
and I remember not wanting to have hatred in my heart any longer
After we prayed, I went in the bathroom and threw up
I somehow knew it was hatred
It looked like hatred
That doesn’t mean you have to throw up to get rid of hatred
The Lord works with everyone differently
You can see that by the many different ways He did miracles
Touching
Speaking
Making dirt clods out of spittle
A very important thing to remember that God told us is
our hearts are where the wickedness can be found:
A good man out of the good treasure of his heart
bringeth forth that which is good;
and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart
bringeth forth that which is evil:
for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
Luke 6:45
Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man;
but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.
Matthew 15:11
Jesus reminded us quite a few times to forgive
and how important forgiveness is to Him
If you do not forgive your brother from your heart:
So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you,
if ye from your hearts forgive not
every one his brother their trespasses. Matthew 18:35
By forgiving, we are committing the offense into His hands
and letting God repay any vengeance that needs to be repaid
as well as choosing to love the person in spite of their offense
which goes back to not letting our love grow cold
One area that I struggle with is the homeless
and the Lord has been working on me in this area for many years
I cared about them in theory,
but knew their situations are often due to some of their own fault
It is not perfect yet, but Jesus has been able to love through me
I truly do care for them
Studies have been done on rats that are fascinating
They gave rats the choice between drugs
and social interactions and the social interactions always won
This .gov website explains the study in detail:
New NIDA Research Reveals the Power of Social Reinforcers
How much more would this be if Jesus were included
and if we can be part of the Social Stimulus that people respond to?
Think how glad God would be
I have read Matthew 24:12 many times
And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
I think each time I have said a prayer to God
to not let my love grow cold,
knowing how my own heart could do that
and that I would need His help to fulfill this mission
even more so as we see the Day of the Lord drawing near
Love is the most important part of God we can allow to flow through us
Whether in word or in deed,
let us love with Jesus’ love
as we complete our journey here on earth