Day 13
Without Love we are not much good for God. God is love so to express His nature through us we have to be able to love unconditionally. Who is it that you need to forgive today? Who is it that you need to serve out of love today?
The only thing that counts is faith
expressing itself through love.”
Galatians 5:6
A man in Santa Fe once put a marriage announcement in the newspaper. However, after deciding not to marry the woman, he called the paper to cancel the announcement but was told that it was too late; the paper had already gone to press. Casually the man remarked, “Oh well, I guess I’ll marry her then.” Imagine if you will, a callous young man such as that courting a beautiful young woman. He buys gifts for her and takes her out to fancy restaurants and the theater. One day, he stops by a flower shop and orders an extravagant bouquet of flowers and a box of gourmet chocolates to be delivered to her at work. The sales clerk comments that he must really love his fiancée a great deal. To this, the man replies, “No, not really, but you’re supposed to do this sort of thing when you’re getting married.”
A relationship based on such empty motives is destined to be unfulfilling at best and utterly disastrous at worst. A commitment as intimate and binding as marriage must be founded on love. The kindness that is shown within the marriage relationship must come from the sincere love shared between husband and wife. It is nearly grotesque to picture the extravagant expressions of love during courtship and marriage as happening for any reason other than love.
The Christian life is one of sacrifice, service, and extravagant good deeds, but to live such a life for any reason other than love is a cheap parody. The reality however, is beautiful beyond compare: To have a passionate love for God that overflows into extravagant expressions of worship. We sacrifice because we love. We give because we love. We obey, not because we must but because we love. We abound in the work of the Lord, not because we should but because we love.
As a church, we have been active in good deeds, and God is drawing us into a season of greater activity than ever. In the midst of this, let us never forget that we must do all that we do out of love for God and love for our neighbors. No lesser motive will last.
Prayer focus: Ask the Lord to reveal the inner motives of your own heart. Pray that love would overwhelm us as a church and be our supreme motivation in all we do. And pray that our love for God and for our neighbors would burn strong, so as to move us to extravagance.
“The whole worth of a kind deed lies in the love that inspires it.” The Talmud
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