Helping People Connect with God and with Others
I believe that at the end of a day most people would like to think that they were loving toward others during that day. However, if we are using a water downed definition of the word love to measure our actions against, we will only be deceiving ourselves.
Christ was more than a model, for He is the source of the very love that we need to show others. If we are to love others, we have to do more than try to imitate His behavior, we have to receive Him and His greatest act of love for us.
As you read this another hurricane is heading toward the U.S. When Irma hits, I don’t know what you will hear in the reports. You might hear stories of neighbors looking out for their neighbors or you might hear stories of people taking advantage of others. For me, it doesn’t matter what I hear that others are doing for I am committed to loving first. I hope you will do the same.
It saddens me to see people talking selfishly of God’s love for them. Often they talk about the great and wonderful things that God has given them without turning anything around to give thanks or devotion to God. They come across like the spoiled rich kid who has more than they could ever use, but still expects more from life.
He can be the creator of everything, the All-knowing One, the Ever-present One, the Holy One, and Almighty God and stay distant from our world. Even though He is all those things, He is so much more, because He comes right down in the middle of our world to be daily connected to our lives. Every day He is saying, “I love you.” In every victory, He is there cheering us on. In every defeat, His is there to pick us up. He is the perfect Father.
You will be amazed after the first time you really open up to God and lightning bolts don’t zap you, but instead, you feel the reinforcing response of an all-loving, gracious God as He demonstrates His faithfulness to you.
The change began when I realized how much God loved me. It included embracing Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for me, but it was so much more. In turn, I started to love God back and then began to love others.
It is supernatural to respond to evil with love by showing genuine compassion for the other person or persons. Love will take the air out of evil and suffocate it so that it does not spread.
Many conflicts arise in families, at work, and especially on social media when someone speaks into another person’s life who has not won the right to do so. More harm that good usually comes out of approaching someone in the wrong way.
Choosing to love means looking beyond a person’s job title, skin color, religious identity, nationality and those things that make them different from you. Instead, seeing them as a human being with needs, strengths, and faults just like you, and treating them with dignity and respect as you would like to be treated.
Connections 