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.
Summer is a great time to get together with people. Schedules are more relaxed, kids are out of school, it stays light much later. Think about what you could provide a group of people at work, your neighbors, or your family that would be the rallying point. Toss it out there and see what happens.
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.
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 