Laurie KRB
8th October 2006, 07:31 PM
James 2:8 ESV
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scrïpture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well.Many people hear or read that verse or other verses (most notably the very words of our Lord Jesus) to love and dismiss the idea without much thought.
I challenge you to think about it, though, just for a moment.
As James said, if you are able to love others, then you are doing well. Doing well in God's Book is "righteousness". Just look up all the blessings which accompany being righteous and you will see immediately that it is something we should all pursue.
But how?
How do you just "love" someone, especially someone you don't know very well?
Jesus made it very clear when He explained that it is simply treating others the way you would like to be treated yourself.
Love is NOT: a feeling.
Love is: an action.
It is doing for others, it is giving selflessly, it is putting others first.
If you are able to do that even once or twice a day (I know from experience -- it's hard at first!) you will begin to reap the rewards and blessings of God in your life. Usually the most notable thing that happens is an inward feeling of peace and joy at being able to do for someone else.
I heard a pastor say that GIVING is when you are most LIKE GOD. God loves us and gives to us, and when we step up to fulfill the Royal Law of love, we begin to become like our Creator. Even something small like picking up something someone else dropped, or holding the door for someone else, can begin the creative process in your heart.
Each action is a small seed which needs to be watered to create in each of us a new heart. A God-like heart that hears His voice and does His will in this earth, not a hardened heart which resists the pull of God to do things which will benefit us as well as others.
His will: love. Treat others the way you want to be treated. You are doing well!1 Corinthians 13:4-7 AMP
Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.
It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].
It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.
Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].You may not be able to succeeed in all of that every day, but God knows our hearts, and when we ask for His help to love others, He is pleased.
He counts it to us as righteousness when we ask Him to love others through us, the vessels He created.
I caught myself this morning, going over in my mind something someone did yesterday which I took offense at. Taking offense is not loving or giving. Love doesn't take an account of evil done, and it doesn't keep a record of wrongs, and I realized that by re-thinking the situation, I was working on "filing" that record in my mind, an offense taken.
As soon as I realized what I was doing I said out loud, "I forgive them and don't hold it against them. I release them, in Jesus name. Father, please forgive me."
It's a small step, I realize, but when we get used to doing things God's way, we will grow so fast! It is our spirits' desire to be like Him, to fellowship with Him in harmony, and as we begin to make right decisions, our spirits soar and grow so quickly!
We were created in His image, in His likeness. When we begin to walk in that understanding, we begin to flow in His love. We will be un-stoppable.
Love never fails.
Peace and Joy, Chosen People!
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scrïpture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well.Many people hear or read that verse or other verses (most notably the very words of our Lord Jesus) to love and dismiss the idea without much thought.
I challenge you to think about it, though, just for a moment.
As James said, if you are able to love others, then you are doing well. Doing well in God's Book is "righteousness". Just look up all the blessings which accompany being righteous and you will see immediately that it is something we should all pursue.
But how?
How do you just "love" someone, especially someone you don't know very well?
Jesus made it very clear when He explained that it is simply treating others the way you would like to be treated yourself.
Love is NOT: a feeling.
Love is: an action.
It is doing for others, it is giving selflessly, it is putting others first.
If you are able to do that even once or twice a day (I know from experience -- it's hard at first!) you will begin to reap the rewards and blessings of God in your life. Usually the most notable thing that happens is an inward feeling of peace and joy at being able to do for someone else.
I heard a pastor say that GIVING is when you are most LIKE GOD. God loves us and gives to us, and when we step up to fulfill the Royal Law of love, we begin to become like our Creator. Even something small like picking up something someone else dropped, or holding the door for someone else, can begin the creative process in your heart.
Each action is a small seed which needs to be watered to create in each of us a new heart. A God-like heart that hears His voice and does His will in this earth, not a hardened heart which resists the pull of God to do things which will benefit us as well as others.
His will: love. Treat others the way you want to be treated. You are doing well!1 Corinthians 13:4-7 AMP
Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.
It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].
It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.
Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].You may not be able to succeeed in all of that every day, but God knows our hearts, and when we ask for His help to love others, He is pleased.
He counts it to us as righteousness when we ask Him to love others through us, the vessels He created.
I caught myself this morning, going over in my mind something someone did yesterday which I took offense at. Taking offense is not loving or giving. Love doesn't take an account of evil done, and it doesn't keep a record of wrongs, and I realized that by re-thinking the situation, I was working on "filing" that record in my mind, an offense taken.
As soon as I realized what I was doing I said out loud, "I forgive them and don't hold it against them. I release them, in Jesus name. Father, please forgive me."
It's a small step, I realize, but when we get used to doing things God's way, we will grow so fast! It is our spirits' desire to be like Him, to fellowship with Him in harmony, and as we begin to make right decisions, our spirits soar and grow so quickly!
We were created in His image, in His likeness. When we begin to walk in that understanding, we begin to flow in His love. We will be un-stoppable.
Love never fails.
Peace and Joy, Chosen People!