Just love
You may have heard this before, but "love" is one of the most commonly used words throughout the bible. We do not know the exact amount of times it is mentioned, but clearly it was a lot. The Lord mentioned this word many times throughout the bible because of the weight of its importance. We are told throughout several bible verses: "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19), "Let all that you do be done in love" (1 Corinthians 16:14), and "Love your neighbor as yourself" (John 10:27). Now these are just a few of the powerful words spoken to us through the Lord. One phrase in the bible that relates is "Love conquers all" (Proverbs 10:12). God is love. If we do not know love then we do not know God. The one way we can bring others to the Lord is through our actions and our loving manner. We mustn't be quick to judge, or quick to become angry, rather we must love like the Lord did being patient in all circumstances. Of course it may be easy to love people similar to you that you can relate with, but the Lord doesn't tell us to only love those we know and enjoy, rather he tells us to love EVERYONE! Love EVERY SINGLE person, you may be thinking... Well let me tell you friend, with the power of the Lord, you will be transformed to not only love others freely, but you will become love. We are identified by how we love others. Love isn't something we fall into overnight, rather it is something we become. We have the power to choose how we want to use our love. Oftentimes when we see someone we don't relate with or maybe someone we honestly do not like, we choose to avoid them like it is the safe thing. God doesn't want us to do the "safe thing" instead he wants us to go outside of our comfort zone and engage with the people who may seem difficult to love. When we wonder away from the Lord/ "avoid him", the Lord STILL pursues us in love. Just like the Lord pursues us, we must pursue the ones in our life who we have been "wondering away from". We cannot let fear call the shots in our life. When we are not afraid to step outside of our box and love everyone, others won't be either. "Love your neighbor as yourself". When we look at this verse, we must remind ourselves that everyone is our neighbor: criminals, bullies, pastors, ministers etc. The world is our neighborhood, and are neighbors are there to teach us and transform even the darkest places into meadows. We need to be more eager to learn from others rather than constantly trying to teach. God wants us to build a kingdom rather than a castle, and a kingdom welcomes everyone in and has grace. So go forth into this life working to love everybody, and accepting everyone for who they are. Everyone is different, and God is doing different things in everyone's life. Just love!
Daily Dose Of Jesus!
XO,
Frances
