Dear Friends,
These past months God has been working on my thinking. I’ve realized how many things I’ve been thinking about the wrong way. I am so grateful for God’s patience, I sure need it! 🙂
Most days I listen to sermons, Bible lessons, and teachings as I do the laundry, dishes, and other housework. I am amazed at how much it helps as I go about my day. It helps me focus on things that matter, contemplate God’s truth, and I am way more likely to fill my thoughts with useful things.
One of the first things God brought to my attention this year was Jesus’ command: “As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34). There’s so much in this command! I am to love even when someone is not kind and nice to me. I am to love sacrificially, unconditionally, fully, and truly. What an amazing love I can show to others because I’ve received it first! It’s an other’s focused kind of love that is happily giving up from its freedom to serve others. And the more I love like this, not just the lives of those around me will be better, but mine as well!
I love how Chris pointed out to me that God gave the rules to us because those rules are best for us. God made us, He knows best what helps us, and He was gracious enough to even let us know how we can be happiest in this life. All His commands are for our good! He doesn’t want to keep anything wonderful from us, He wants us to enjoy this life to the fullest, and that is only possible if we live it for Him in a way that is pleasing to Him.
God has a lot of commands concerning how we should treat one another, because He deeply cares about us. He wants us to treat each other with respect and value each other as His image bearers. We are to be in peace with each other, helping each other and building one another up. How I wish I did this all the time!
I am learning how to love like Jesus loves, and the more I do it, the freer I feel. I am so grateful for a God who loves us unconditionally and shows us how to live out this same kind of love. He is the One working in me, and He makes it possible for me to love, not like the world does, but like He does.