Tuesday, June 2, 2015

LOVE x 3




We are so small in a big world, but God knows all our thoughts and he loves us. He's waiting for us to love him back.


If the whole Bible would be narrowed down to just one sentence it would sound something like this: "Love God, love yourself, and love others as yourself." It's so simple, so easy to understand yet so difficult to do sometimes. When it comes down to loving God we either don't love him because we don't know that he exist, or we know about God but we don't know his character. We might have an idea in our heads about who God is that is far from the truth, so even if we love him it's more like we admire someone who we have never met. If we are going to be able to love God we must first know him. Who is he? What is he about? What is his plan for this world? Think about the people you love, how well do you know them? Quite well, right? You can't love someone who you don't know very well.




When we love ourselves we take care of our own physical, emotional and spiritual needs, both during the storms and the calmer seasons in life.


Love yourself sound like a much easier command, in today's world we are so selfish that we must love ourselves right? Not necessarily. Just like confident people often have very bad self-esteem it's possible to be very selfish and still not love yourself. Selfish people want what they want and expect other people to bend to their needs. Loving yourself doesn't mean always trying to have it your way, it means accepting yourself and embracing your true self. Loving yourself means you aren't afraid to stand up for yourself and make sure you get treated with respect from others. It's also about caring for your own personal needs rather than neglecting them. When you love yourself you listen to your inner longings and take care of your self. You make sure you take time to rest, exercise and feed your body good foods that will keep you healthy.

Loving yourself also means spending time with people who fill your emotional needs of love, appreciation, attention and acceptance.  If you love yourself you also choose to spend less time with people who tend to be hurtful and selfish, people who could hurt you emotionally or even worse physically. You protect those you love, and that includes yourself.




When we love others we commit to serving others, even when it's inconvenient or a little uncomfortable.


"Loving others" we are more familiar with, since we can't escape the need to love others as we live in societies among other humans. Loving others as yourself means you treat others with the same respect and priority that you would treat your own needs. When you love others you learn that sometimes love requires you to act even when it's uncomfortable or inconvenient. If you like someone you spend time with him or her when you feel like it, but when you love someone you realize you will sometimes need to put their needs above your own,  not all the time, but sometimes.

Love doesn't always feel good because love isn't always easy. When Jesus died on the cross he did it out of love for us, that was neither comfortable or easy. When we love others it will sometimes require us to "die to our own will" and put someone else above ourselves for awhile. Love always includes some level of self-sacrifice. Love is about caring for someone's needs, whether they are unmet physical, emotional or spiritual needs. Loving someone can be giving food to someone who is starving on the street, or listening to a friend who is going through a tough time in life. Loving someone can be praying for God to intervene and heal someone who is sick and in the hospital.

Loving someone can be a million different things, but love is always an action. When you love someone you do something for him or her. When we help, hug, listen, comfort, feed, pray for, encourage, strengthen and lift up others, then we know that we are truly loving others. When we love we act as servants, we serve others by filling their physical, emotional or spiritual needs. If we follow the three commands to love God, love ourselves and love others, what could that look like? Here's an example of that lifestyle:

"We love God so we obey him by choosing not to lie, steal, cheat or envy others etc. We love others so even when it's not convenient or comfortable we serve others by filling their physical, emotional and spiritual needs. We understand that love will sometimes require us to put the needs of others above our own needs. At the same time we love ourselves, which means we won't allow others to treat us with lack of respect. We prioritize taking time to rest, exercise and eat healthy. We spend more time with people who can fill our emotional and spiritual needs and less time with people who drain us of energy and who could potentially hurt us emotionally. We love ourselves so we completely stay away from people who could hurt us physically."

This way of living sounds so good, and although it takes a lot of practice to be able to live in this way it's the goal I strive towards, to be able to live The Life of Love.


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