So, if the Way of Love is best, how do I love?
I was having a conversation with a friend the other day and we were discussing that sometimes we don’t know what words to say or what to do for others. We want to express love towards someone, but we just don’t know what the other person will receive as love.
Jesus always knew what others needed. He always had the right words and actions to display love towards others, whether they wanted to hear it or not.
“For I (Jesus) have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will.” John 6:38
Jesus only said and did what His Heavenly Father told Him to.
God is Love, so His will is always Love!
So, God is the key to loving others!
Knowing God; spending time with Him in prayer and reading His word, and being obedient to all God says…this is the Way of Love!
The conversation with my friend the other day came to the conclusion that when we don’t know what to say or what to do, we must pray!
Love is a matter of the heart!
It was matters of the heart that God addressed when He gave Jesus understanding and insight to know what to say and do for others.
God knew the thirst of the Samaritan woman’s heart as she walked to the well that hot day in search of cool water to quench her thirst. God understood the disappointment, hurt, and shame she carried from five broken marriages and living with yet another man who wasn’t bringing her the fulfillment that she longed for.
God’s love for her was the answer to her problem, and Jesus was sent as the Living Water to draw her to Him!
For God alone could truly satisfy the thirst of her heart!
It was Jesus’ words of knowledge, given to Him from God, that caused this woman to bend her knee in belief that He truly was the Messiah!
God’s words of love quenched her thirst forever!
It is through prayer for others, talking with our Heavenly Father, that we discover LOVE for others.
Through prayer God opens your spiritual eyes to see beyond the physical circumstances and to understand their true thirst and the matters of their heart.
When you see beyond the physical and gain spiritual understanding it brings a love and compassion into your own heart that doesn’t come from yourself, but only from God, who is love!
Through prayer God convicts you of any wrong or judgmental thoughts or attitudes you may have that hindered your love for them, and perhaps has hindered their love for God.
When you see your own offenses and wrong attitudes you have the opportunity to confess your sin and be set free. And the amazing thing about that is – it sets them free as well!
Through prayer God fills you with the desire, the will, and specific ideas of how to be a vessel of God’s love.
As a vessel of God’s love you will extend grace and show loving – kindness they need so they will feel loved. Words and actions motivated by the love of God can be life-changing!
Through prayer your heart is changed, their heart is changed, and God reveals His love in amazing and miraculous ways you would have never thought to ask or could even imagine!
This is the way of LOVE!
“Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.” Romans 8:34
If you know God today and have experienced His LOVE, it is because someone prayed for you. Even if there was no one here on earth who brought your name to the throne of God, Jesus is at the right hand of God, praying for you!
Jesus gave us the example of the Way of Love as He spent time in prayer, talking with His Heavenly Father, and by being obedient to what His Heavenly Father wanted Him to say and to do.
As Jesus called His disciples to “Follow Me,” Jesus calls us to follow His example and to walk in the way that is best, the Way of Love!
Who has God put on your mind to pray for today? If you choose to love someone through praying for them you will find God not only changes them by His love, but you too are changed by the love of God!