Love (2)

Loving Others

The Bible emphasizes that our lives must be based on love. The most important commandments found in Scripture are to love God and to love each other (Matt. 22:37–40).

Scripture repeatedly emphasizes loving our neighbor (Gal. 5:14, Lev. 19:18 Matt. 19:19, Rom. 13:9, James 2:8)

It is natural to love your family and friends, but to love those who hate you and persecute you? (Matt. 5:43-45)

Indeed loving people is difficult. Yet this is what the Bible commands. "For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: we should love one another" (1 John 3:11). We spend time on what we deem important. For many of us these choices are valid: time with family and friends, work, prayer, serving the poor, fighting for rights, protesting wrongs. But as the Scripture reminds us, "And if I donate all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing" (1 Cor. 13:3).

When we demonstrate Christian love, it distinguishes believers from the rest of the world. Jesus goes on to say, "By this [love] all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35)

How do we demonstrate the distinctiveness of Christian love? Because virtue is moral action we practice, how can we practice the glorious virtue of love?

·        Value the other person

·        open up to the other person

·        Accept people where they are

·        Look for Potential rather than Problems

And so on

 

We pray to always obey the commandment of love.

Love (1)

God is Love

God is love and that is so clear, from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21 .

God loved us when we were unlovable.

It takes the power of God through the Holy Spirit to love the unlovable.

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

God’s love is no better displayed than on the cross because Jesus died for us while we were still sinners and enemies of His.

Love is a verb and it’s what you do, not what you say or what you feel. That is the consummate action of God’s love.

 “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” - 1 Cor. 13:4-7

God is not only love but love is from God.

It’s impossible to claim to know God and love God and hate your brother (1 John 4:20).

We pray to love the way God love’s us.

Thanksgiving

Thankful Hearts

Giving thanks to God reminds us of how much we do have. Human beings are prone to covetousness. We tend to focus on what we don’t have. By giving thanks continually we are reminded of how much we do have.

We can have thankful hearts toward God even when we do not feel thankful for the circumstance. We can grieve and still be thankful. We can hurt and still be thankful.

That is what the Bible calls a “sacrifice of praise” ( Hebrews 13:15 ).

The Bible is filled with commands to give thanks to God ( Ps106:1 ; 107:1 ;

118:1 ; 1 Chronicles 16:34 ; 1 Thess 5:18 ).

Some reasons why we should be thankful include;

• It honors God . (2 Cor. 4:15 )
• It is commanded in Scripture. (Ps. 100:4)
• God is just. (Ps.  7:17)
• God is our source of joy. (Ps. 43:4)
• God answers our prayers and saves us. (Ps.  118:21)
• Giving thanks to God keeps our hearts in right relationship with Him (Phil 4:6–7 ).
• God forgives and comforts us. (Isa. 12:1)
• God delivers us from evil. (Jer. 20:13)
• God delivered us from the power of sin. (Rom 6:17)
• God has given us a heavenly inheritance in Jesus Christ. (Col. 1:11-12)

Thanksgiving and praise always go together. We cannot adequately praise and worship God without also being thankful. Great benefits and blessings come to those who consistently thank God. (Ps. 2:1) It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to the Most High.

Thanklessness has dangerous consequences. It is dangerous to self and others. It dishonors God and leads to proud humanism or dependence on man rather than God (Rom. 1:21 ). It also leads to bitterness, complaining, and a joyless life (Heb. 12:15 ).

We pray to have thankful hearts in all circumstance.

Prayer

Talking to God

  

Most people think of prayer as a way to contact God. Consequently they practice prayer more or less frequently regardless of the religious label they attach to themselves.

The Bible presents God as a person who has communicated with us and who invites us to communicate with Him.

Essentially prayer is talking to God. It is expressing our thoughts and feelings to Him.

It is specifically our words to God. His words to us are something other than prayer: revelation, answer, response, etc. As Christians, we really need prayers for various reasons (Matt. 26:41, Eph. 6:18).

Prayer can be in different forms;

• Making requests for ourselves (Matt. 6:11, Luke 11:1-4, James 4:2).
• Making requests for others (Eph. 6:18, James 5:16, 1 Tim. 2:1-2, James 4:2).
• Confession (Matt. 6:12; Luke 11:4).
• Conversing with God (1 Sam. 8:22, Ezek. 20:49, 1 Sam.16:2; Acts 9:13-14).
• Praising the God (2 Chron. 29:28-30).
• Thanking God (Gen. 24:26-27; 2 Sam. 22:29-46; Ps. 9:3-6; 116; 118; Acts 28:15; 1 Cor. 1:4-9).

Prayer can sometimes be accompanied by sacrifices, burning of incense, fasting, singing, watching, etc.

Pray is a large subject throughout the Bible, and if you are earnest, you will want to learn more.

If you do not know how to pray effectually, then seek more information.

We pray for the spirit of fervent prayer and supplication in our Christian lives. Amen