By Mark Maher
“The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others.” Mitch Albom
“Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.” (Psalm 143:8)
Do you have people in your life that you are led by God to “love well?” 1 Corinthians 13 is the highest standard on love, “It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (vs 7) “Always” is an absolute so the calling is high, almost beyond our human capacity, but we can still strive to do our best. “Love is not only something you feel, it is something you do.” David Wilkerson
Where do you work out the calling of “love others?” (John 13:35) Is it your spouse, your family, your parents, your children, while at work, at church or in the community. Do you have one person in particular that you’re working on “loving well?” “Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.” (Romans 12:10)
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8)
When love is strong in someone you’ll see life and purpose. It’s their fuel. It’s their strength. And God has equipped us to increase this capacity. “The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.” Mitch Albom
“When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.” The Dalai Lama
Do you feel God’s calling to “love someone well?” Jesus said “my command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” (John 15:12) “You’ve got to come to the end of yourself to find the beginning of God.” Phil Robertson
Love is the ultimate expression of faith. This is the one thing we have to get right. “I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)
Romans 13:8 states, “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to LOVE ONE ANOTHER, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.” So we pray to the Lord to “let us love well.” Let us recognize this supersede all other directives in our faith. “It is not beauty that endears, it’s love that makes us see beauty.” Leo Tolsto
Love is an action. It’s being there. Being someone that you can count on. “Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:18)
