Love in such a way that honors God

Lord, I want to love in a way that honors You.
How can I do that today, everyday?
How can I love in such a way that You get the glory, your people are uplifted, and your grace is shown?
Lord, help me honor You today by my very actions and even thoughts.

Love to be a Blessing

How am I going to be a blessing today?
How can I bless those around me with love in a special way today?
How can I let them know I love them, that I value them, that I am grateful for them?
How can I be a source of love and light to them where they need it?

Help me O Lord to see my opportunities - and "insert love."

How I love myself affects the way I love you

The way I feel about you (and the world) is affected by the way I feel about myself.

Sometimes, my lack of display of love for you, is from an emptiness in myself, not from a lack of love for you. Usually, I don't express myself well, when I don't feel good about myself.

It's sad, but it's about me, not you. Let this not be.

Lord, don't let the lack in me keep me from loving well those around me.

This reminds me of Matthew 22:39- Love your neighbor as yourself. Sometimes that's the problem: I don't love myself well. Help me to love me, the way you intended as well.

Love is not a feeling, it's something you do

As I read about the orphanage in Haiti, that Gray is serving in (www.danitaschildren.org), I found a great quote on love: "love is not a feeling - it is something you do." (Danita Estrella, founder)

Love has spurred this lady to do something- create a haven for orphans.
What is love spurring you to do?
What are you doing with the love in your heart?
Love will move you to do something, what will it be?

Everything Depends on Love

"Everything depends on how we love each other." [Mother Teresa, page 167, The Joy in Loving]

Do you live that way? Do you live like everything in your life depends on how you are loving others? After all, it does. Everything will be a fall out or blessing from that. The overflow of your life will show your love or lack of love with everything around you.

What are you counting on to depend on? I hope it's your love and not anything else.

Be encouraged, Mother Teresa also said, "People who love each other fully and truly are the happiest people in the world." (ibid)

God is loving the world through you today

"God loves the world through you and through me today."

Mother Teresa

(page 155, The Joy in Loving)

As Gray is in Haiti serving the people down there today, I think of how I can serve and love here better, more intentionally, more missional. He said the thing about being on a mission trip, is you are really on mission. There is nothing else you are there to do but to serve and to help. If only we lived that way here. I told my neighbor serving her husband who is recovering from surgery, her mission is right there now. Our missions can be a plane ride away, or in our home. But, we must be on mission, serving and loving the world we are in today.

Sin is failing to Love

Sin is failing to love. That's my definition. Whenever I sin, I have failed to love. So, remember that next time you sin. Your sin is the result of your failing to love in some way that you should.

My withholding of love is holding back from God what He is due.

O Lord, do not let me sin against you today (Psalm 51:4). Lord, help me love.

Needs are tied to Love (& Vice Versa)

"If we cannot identify our needs, we cannot know love.

If we deny we have needs, we will not experience love.

If we withhold our needs, we can't receive the love others have for us."

(page 136, TrueFaced)

Because we have needs, we need love.

Don't think of needs in a bad light.

God gave us needs, so He could meet them.

He meets them in loving ways.

Look to Him to meet your needs, and you will discover love.

We need the power of God

"It takes the power of God to make God known to the human spirit.

This knowledge enables us to love God.

It takes God to love God, and it takes God to know God."

(Mike Bickle, Charisma Devotion, 02/16/10)

Need love? Need God.

We need the love of God in us to teach us how to love.

We can't do it on our own.

Treat others the way Christ would - that's Love

In hearing John 13: 34 [love one another as I have loved you] expounded by someone, they told us "to treat others as Jesus would treat them." Now there's a challenge for us today: to treat others in the way Christ would treat them. That means I need to see them as Christ would see them. That also means I would have to think about them the way Christ would. Then, I would have to act in accordance with His ways, the Scripture, and the Holy Spirit. That's a high calling. Will I answer it?

I want to love more

My commitment for today:

Lord, I want to love more

I want to love better

I want to love more purely from You

Lord, help me this day.

Love as Fire

"Love is the friendship that has caught fire." That's a quote my friend Sharon sent me.

I liked that one. Love as a picture of friends that have caught on fire. It's a picture of taking the relationship getting so close, you catch on fire. It's combustion of personalities. It's lightening hitting the ground. It's spellbinding as you watch the flames flicker up. It's the thought of something "catching." You didn't cast it. You didn't contract it. "It"- Love - ignited, and now you feel the warmth of the fire. You didn't create the fire, but you can enjoy it.

Love doesn't have all the answers

"Love doesn't require that we always have all the answers. Instead, many times love just asks that we listen to the problem...Sometimes love means just being there for the person we care about..." That's how Gary Chapman sees it (page 151, Love is a Verb). How do you see it?

You don't have to have all the answers, but you may need to sit through a lot of questions. You don't have to give advice, but can you give your ear - and your heart? Can you be there with them, without the discomfort of not having the answer, or the solution? Love is most beautiful when it is shared.

Loving One Person at a Time

"We can only love one person at a time."

That's what Mother Teresa said. She must have known this was the only way she could do her work, that covered millions of people. We can only love one person at a time. We can only be in one place. Living in the now, helps us see where we are. Be where you are and love the person with you. Now.

The Love Day - Valentines Day

Wikipedia says Valentines Day "is the traditional day on which lovers express their love..."

"The exchange of love notes," has become 'de rigueur.' Valentines Day is the 2nd largest card sending day, only to Christmas. Traditional Valentines Day cards were scraps of papers or lace with a poem to the one they loved.

Take the time today to write some words of love, perhaps even a poem, to the one you love.

Establish those words on paper and in your heart as a memorial to your love for them.

May you be blessed by the writing and may the receiver be blessed by your words expressed to them.

Love begins with noticing

"Loving begins with noticing." (Page 120, Gary Thomas, Devotions for a Sacred Marriage)

Gary Thomas' thoughts seemed so profound to me. Those who notice you show love to you. Sometimes it seems we're invisible, or no one notices or cares. He goes on to say "we live in a self-absorbed world." When we're not self absorbed we notice those around us and we can attend to their needs and notice their specialness.

Today, notice those around you, so you can love them for who they are.

(P.S. Thanks for noticing me, G.)

Knowing Where You Came From & Where You're Going Can Help You Love

After John wrote about Jesus "having loved...loved them to the end..." (captured in John 13:1), he expounds on how this worked. 2 verses later, it explains that this man, who had loved-to the end, knew where He came from and where He was going. He knew He was. So, what did He do with that knowledge? 1 verse later it tells us this loving man, knowing who He was, washed his friends feet. Full of ongoing love and knowledge, this man humbled himself and served others. What a witness for us today in our loving relationships, to be humble, to serve.

Grasp where you came from and where you are going ~ and serve, in humility and love.

Loving to the End

John 13:1 says Jesus "having loved His own...loved them to the end."

I was thinking how beautiful that description was incorporating the present tense with the past tense "of having loved," with the future tense of loving them until the end. Loving to the end...that's faithfulness. Loving to the end...that's commitment. Loving to the end...that's discipline. Loving to the end...that's complete.

Let your love be ongoing, and future focused. Love with a plan..."the end."

Find Love where you put Love

"Where there is no love, put love, and there you will find love." St. John of the Cross

Have you ever come across empty spaces or people? Perhaps the space is full of people, but there is strife or division, no love.

Try putting love into empty places, empty people, and see if the place doesn't change, or the people don't respond. It may take a while, but watch, and wait, and see.

The harder part is trying to put love where there is hatred. Can you change the situation, can you alter the relationship? Try just thinking thoughts of love, then perhaps just kinder, more considerate words, as you work your way into loving words and actions.

It's a small step, but you can start.

Colossians 3:14 - PUT ON LOVE

Important works are works done with love

"Our Lord does not care so much for the importance of our works as for the love with which they are done." St. Teresa of Avila

Saint Teresa of Avila sounds a lot like Saint Teresa of India, where she says there are no great works, just works done with great love.

Some people do important works, I'm not one of them. It's encouraging for me to know that only the works that are done with love will last ~ since love is the only thing that will last.

Do your works with love. It will show. It will help. It will last.

Love Mercy

"What does the Lord require of you?" That is the question posed in Micah 6:8.

The answer is, "But to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."

That sounds a lot like living with love, interacting with humility.

Justice comes from considering the other person. Mercy comes from knowing we aren't that great and they aren't that bad. Humility comes from knowing who God is and what we are in relation to that.

It's a great challenge, and I bet you can't do it without God's help. Walk humbly with Him, and you will love justice and mercy.

Seeing Love

"See how he loved..." That what the Jews said about Jesus in John 11:36. They could see how much Jesus loved Peter. They could sense it.

I wonder if anybody would ever say that about me? Do you think anyone would ever see you weep openly over anyone you love? They could tell by his actions that he loved him.

What will people know by my actions today? Will anyone see love in me?

If you notice love today, what will it look like? How will you know it? Would you recognize it?

Loving is Waiting

John 11:5,6

"Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed 2 more days..."

I don't know, but it just struck me, Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. But, He didn't jump. He stayed. Sometimes, love can do that. Sometimes, the best thing to do is be patient. Jesus knew that the glory of God was at hand. Jesus knew that God could be "glorified through it" (John 11:4).

It may be uncomfortable waiting. We expect people, especially those who love us, to jump when we have a need. But, perhaps the most loving thing one can do is to wait for the glory of God.

Loving without judging or changing

Lance Wubbels also said, "I will love others just the way they are...without judging them or trying to change them into the image of what I'd like them to become."

-Loving people ~ just the way they are. Isn't that the way we want to be loved? It doesn't mean you don't want "better" for them. It doesn't mean you don't see their faults. It means you love them inspite of this. And love usually boils down to this....loving inspite of....whatever it is.

-Loving people ~ without judging them. That can be difficult. We're such good judges aren't we. We don't even need a jury. We can do it without any help or counsel- or even law books!

-Loving people ~ without wanting to change them - in any way. Usually we have better plans for them. Usually they could make us happier if they changed in a certain way. Usually we want more out of them. Mostly then, we are disappointed. Change is hard, for them, and for us. Leave the change - or should I say, transformation - in God's hands, and let the acceptance be in our hands.

Love as the center of your being

"I will make love the center of my being and all I do."

That's how Lance Wubbels puts it in his booklet, "Dance While You Can."

If we made love the center of our being, the focus of our universe and our own soul, what would life look life and feel like? We would be changed forever, and so would everyone around us!

The tragedy of not loving

"There is merely bad luck in not being loved; there is tragedy in not loving." Albert Camus

Think of your life without love. If your life had no love in it, it would be a tragedy. If there was tragedy that happened in your life, what would the tragedy be like without love at least surrounding it, or occurring after it, or experiencing it beforehand? Life without love would be like living in a vacuum. It would occur, but what would touch you? Would you have no feelings, or only negative ones?

Don't let a single day be a tragedy. Infuse love everywhere you go. Accept love where you find it. Be grateful for any love you feel. Share it whenever you can.

If life without love is a tragedy, life with love is a joy.

Don't Neglect to Love

When I read, "It is this neglect to love that brings spiritual poverty," it saddened me. (page 117, The Joy in Loving)

I don't want to be spiritually deprived. I don't want spiritual poverty, which means I am poor in spirit. So, I must set about doing the things that will enrich my life and those of others. I must not neglect my obligation and privilege to love. Where I neglect to love, poverty sets in. They are poorer, and I am in sin and darkness. I miss the blessing. They lose being blessed. It's a no win situation.

Don't neglect or overlook your opportunity to love today. It's money in the bank - the bank of a life well lived.

Love is the Work

Here's another Mother Teresa quote to ponder:

"I don't want the work to become a business but to remain a work of love." (p. 123, The Joy in Loving)

Is your work today to love? What is your business? Whatever your work is, do it with love, not for money or recognition, or even duty.

Paul said it best:

Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. I Corinthians 10:31

Whatever you do, working at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. Col 3:23