Where is the Love?

"Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, 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."

Love is essential to our human existence. Without it, something inside of us withers up and we feel like a part of us is dead. I'm not talking about romantic love or infatuation; I'm talking about real and lasting love - the unconditional kind! We were made to love and be loved; God created us with to love Him and love each other. Nowadays though, love seems to be vanishing - even in the church, where it should be the number one commodity.

We have begun to act as if love is not important; truth and knowledge are more important! However, Paul says in I Corinthians 13, that you can do all kinds of good works, speak eloquently and have huge faith, but if you do these things without love, they don't count for anything. Love is the most important part of Christianity!

Our primary motivator should always be love. Whatever we do and say to and for others should always come from a heart of love. Everything that Jesus said and did was out of love. Not once did He let anything deter Him from acting in love. He constantly put His love for others before His own needs and wants; even when He was physically eshausted, hungry and needing rest, He still had deep compassion on the crowds following Him and took care of their needs before His.

Technology has taken the place of human interaction these days, and we are talking and seeing each other less and less. This has also made showing love to one another a lot harder. There are millions of unhappy people out there, and you see many of them every day. Look around the next time you are on the bus or subway or waiting in line at the store. Your smile can lift someone's spirits and make a difference in a stranger's life. Another thing you can do to show love to a stranger or someone you know is to simply ask, "how are you?" and really mean it! This question has become a part of conversation, and most people just answer, "fine, how are you?" Let the person know that you really want to know how they are!

Don't love selfishly; instead, use I Corinthian's 13 as your guide. Remember, one day you will stand before God and He will not be judging us according to your actions; He will be looking at the intent of your heart - your motivation for doing those actions.

Standing On The Promises...

We have all heard the old song, "Standing on the Promises of God", or maybe we have heard people say that they are standing on His promises.

The Bible is full of examples of God delivering on what He promised people. There are way too many to list here, but if you want proof, open your Bible, or go to http://www.biblegateway.com/, pick a translation and type "promised" in the keyword space. There are pages and pages of examples!

What does it actually mean to stand on God's promises? Can we really stand on them? Let's start on what God has promised us: Eternal life, joy, peace, faith, protection, forgiveness and love - just to name a few! Love sort of encompasses all of the things He has promised us, and Romans 8:35-39 says that NOTHING can separate us from the love of God. That is one heck of a promise!

Can we stand on these promises? You bet we can, but how? Believing that God will come through with what He has promised is really easy when life is going our way. When everything is great and the bills are paid with money left over, when we are healthy, have a great job and we are just loving life, it is so easy to trust in God, isn't it? But when life is not turning out quite the way we thought it would, and we feel like our world is falling apart all around us and there is nothing we can do to change it - that is when standing on His promises comes into play.

Almost everyone in the world has to have read the "Footprints" poem by now, so I will not type the whole thing out here. (If you have been in a coma for the last 20+years, Google and you will find!) In Footprints, when there was only one set of prints in the sand, the person thought that they were walking alone, but the footprints turned out to be Jesus' prints. He was carrying them during the hardest times in their life - even though they never knew it!

We all go through times when it feels like God has forgotten about us or He has abandoned us in our time of need. These are the times when we need to stand on His promises. If you are feeling this way, I encourage you not to go by what your emotions are telling you. You know what God's Word says! He says He will never leave you or forsake you - even if your feelings don't believe it, your mind and your heart know it to be true. Grit your teeth and hold on to what the Bible says for dear life, and believe that He is carrying you through!

You are not alone - David went through many times like this. Read the Psalms for encouragement, and notice how many times he had to put his feelings in place.