It’s not easy sometimes
Letting God’s love flow
People can be difficult
Or maybe it’s not them,
maybe you just don’t feel that giving
The greatest of these is Love
1 Corinthians 13 tells us that,
that if we don’t love, we are a clanging cymbal
or a noisy gong
Paul said if you don’t love your brother whom you can see,
how can you say you love God whom you can’t see? (1 John 4:20)
The bible is full of admonitions of love
The question is, how do we really do it?
How do we take what God has given us
and return it back to Him?
as is reflected in our lives and our actions?
We each need to strive to demonstrate love
in our own way with the help of the Holy Spirit
It is not always easy
It is easy to love those who love you,
who are nice to be around
who bring us happiness and joy
the unlovely are not so easy to love
They can say or do things that offend us if we let them
Jesus said,
For if you love those who love you, what reward have you?
Do not even the tax collectors do the same? Matthew 5:46
Following Christ’s example is part of carrying our cross
and is part of doing the work that is spoken of
Sometimes the work of God is very difficult to do:
Not being offended
Loving others in spite of their ugliness
Remember, we too have ugliness
Jesus loves us,
by loving others,
those all around us,
even our enemies and those otherwise unlovable,
we are loving Him
That is, in fact, the best way to show Jesus Love
He said if you do this to the least of these,
you have done it unto me
Jesus is easy to love because He’s perfect
but to love someone not perfect in His name
is more of a challenge
When you have been wronged or bugged,
imagine for one minute that offender being Jesus,
How would you treat Him?
Matthew 24:12 talks about love growing cold
Let that not be
Love is the most valuable asset we can bring to God,
to use for God, to allow God to pour through us,
The greatest of these is Love
Scriptural References:
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels,
but do not have love,
I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy
and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have a faith that can move mountains,
but do not have love,
I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor
and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,
but do not have love,
I gain nothing.
Love is patient,
love is kind.
It does not envy,
it does not boast,
it is not proud.
It does not dishonor others,
it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects,
always trusts,
always hopes,
always perseveres.
Love never fails.
But where there are prophecies,
they will cease;
where there are tongues,
they will be stilled;
where there is knowledge,
it will pass away.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
but when completeness comes,
what is in part disappears.
When I was a child,
I talked like a child,
I thought like a child,
I reasoned like a child.
When I became a man,
I put the ways of childhood behind me.
For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror;
then we shall see face to face.
Now I know in part;
then I shall know fully,
even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain:
faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13 NIV
And the King shall answer and say unto them,
Verily I say unto you,
Inasmuch as ye have done it unto
one of the least of these
my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Matthew 25:40
And because iniquity shall abound,
the love of many shall wax cold.
Matthew 24:12
But love your enemies,
do good, and lend,
hoping for nothing in return;
and your reward will be great,
and you will be sons of the Most High.
For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.
Therefore be merciful,
just as your Father also is merciful.
Luke 6:35-36