Think

I was not going to make this a blog post, but someone thought I should. It is good to have questions put to us once in a while to cause us to stop and take a look at our life. Our life is but a vapor and what we deem important really is but a small insignificant thing in the light of eternity.

So many times we live our life around a person or thing; we make it the most important thing without really thinking about what it will do for us in eternity. I’m not saying we shouldn’t take care of what has been bestowed upon us, for we are to be responsible stewards, but we are not to make idols out of those things or people in our life. All that God gives to us is to help us grow in Him, to help us along in this life. All that we have here is going to soon pass away. When we get to the other side the things we held dear to our hearts won’t mean anything; the loved ones here won’t have the same place over there.

So I now put to you, dear reader, a few questions on which to ponder. And it is my prayer that you might put the things you hold so dear to your heart in their proper place and put the Lord Jesus Christ above them all. If you are putting someone or something first, ahead of God it is only because you are blind to Who gave them to you in the first place and second, because you lack gratitude for what God has given you.

Why do you choose the creature over the Creator? How long will you continue to choose the creature over the One who gave you all you have? Try thinking about your relationships in the light of eternity. Will it really be worth it to have put the creature first in your life when on the other side it won’t matter?

True happiness comes from putting God first, if you do that He will bless you and bless what you have. Give it a try, I’m quite sure you won’t be disappointed.

Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Remember this: Only what is done for Christ will last throughout eternity.

Love

We are to love at all times, and we should do it unconditionally. Now I know in the world we live in today that unconditional love is nearly impossible to find and even the best person may fall short once in a while.

Why is it we have so many conditions when it comes to love, even on the ones that are closest to us? Are we so blind that we cannot see our own imperfections? Do we like people putting conditions on us?

Perhaps the next time we don’t have the love that we should have coming forth, we should step back for a moment and see what is wrong with us instead of trying to blame it on the other person.
Maybe we are only thinking of our self at the time and that person being there just didn’t fit with "ME" at the time so I didn’t act so kindly to them. Or perhaps I had a bad day and so I treat the other person in a not so nice way because of "ME".

You see LOVE is a verb. A verb is an action word. It should not be based on feeling. Why is it that so much of the time we base our love on how we are feeling at the time? If our love is real then we should be able to choose to love outside of our feelings, or whether we are “too busy”, or whatever our feeble excuse is. I mean, haven’t you ever heard of Sacrificial Love?

We live in a world that is severely lacking in “action love”. We throw around words of love but they are not backed by anything. This world has grown very cold, hard and selfish; each man for himself, even if it means walking on or over someone.
I think it’s high time we went back to our Bible and took a lesson from our Lord. And if we really loved God and we really loved ourselves we would have no trouble loving and showing love to others in our lives.

LOVE is not a feeling; it’s an act of your will; which implies CHOICE.
Love based solely on feeling does not last, look at the divorce rate. But love based on choice goes on and on and has far reaching affects, not only on ourselves but on others; you cannot be selfish and self absorbed and love at the same time.

How are you living up in the area of LOVE today? What motivates you to love or not love? Are you loving in your actions just as much as in your words, or are your words of love empty and without substance?
We all need to be loved, what kind of love touches you? Shouldn’t we show forth the same kind of love towards others that we like to receive our self? Don’t we like to be loved even when at times we are not so loveable. Haven’t you have ever been shown love when you were not being so loveable yourself, didn’t it sort of take the sting out of you? It has me.

Just one last thought:

A cat has claws that can retract. A dog has claws but does not have the ability to retract them. The cat scratches because it chooses to scratch, the dog scratches but does not have a choice, it just happens. It’s a funny thing though, we love our cat despite how it acts with it claws, by choice, and we love our dog despite how it acts with its claws by no choice. This is really something to think about in relation to people.

Just like the dog having something he cannot do anything about we don’t get mad at him or treat him bad because his claws may have gotten in the way, no we love him because we know he can’t do anything about those. Well, there are people that have things wrong with them, perhaps they were born with a problem or developed something later in life; If we know and understand the reason the person is like the way they are then we just keep loving them, knowing and understanding that they cannot do anything about the problem, and maybe we should stop and think that if they had a choice about the matter things might be different. We love them in spite of the problem. We love them for WHO they are not their condition.
And so it is with REAL LOVE, we love the person, NOT the condition or frame of mind they are in. Jesus loves you no matter what your actions are. Shouldn’t we do the same?

Love can calm a raging sea, and LOVE brings happiness to you and me.