Yesterday in church pastor preached an awesome message about loving others. One statement he made really stuck out to me: "If you are trying to satisfy yourself, you will never really be satisfied. If you are trying to make yourself happy, you will never really be happy." My life is full...full to overflowing. Every single night of the week I have some commitment or another. Every day I have things to accomplish. Yet, my life has held such a feeling of emptiness lately. I think I now know why. Everything I do, I do for me. Tuesday-Thursday nights are busy with "spiritual" things: jail ministry, prayer meeting, and Bible study. How could I be doing all those and feel unsatisfied? Because I was doing them for me. I need to turn my eyeballs around and look outside myself for once. Jail ministry should be done for the ladies I meet, to share Christ with them and encourage them. Prayer meeting is a time to set aside for praying for others who have physical and spiritual needs. And Bible study is a time to edify and exhort other ladies I meet with as we study God's Word. All these things are good, but with my eyes on myself, I will never really be satisfied with my work. Now I can do all these things and truly be happy in the Lord as He uses me to take His Words of truth and joy to others.
Loving others doesn't stop there, though. That is just the big picture. Love of others ought to show itself in our everyday activities. How we treat people at the bank, the store, the gas station. How we greet fellow believers in public. 1 John says that people will know we are Christians by the love we have for eachother. Is your life about loving others, or are you too busy loving yourself? This is something I have been convicted about and I know I must make changes in my life in this area. Maybe you, too, need to stop and evaluate who you are loving more. Remember, "in this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins...if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." (1 John 4:10-11).
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