“Let all that you do be done with love.” 1 Cor. 16:14…………
“My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” 1 John 3:18………….
“Serve the LORD with gladness;…” Psalm 100:2…………..
“…he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness…” Romans 12:8…………
“So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.” 2 Cor. 9:7………….
“Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.”” Mark 1:41………………..
Can you figure this out? What is the message in the scriptures above? What do they all have in common? What are we called to do? Please don’t miss this. If you look at the verses on the surface, as I did for so many years, along with the Bible in general, you may well miss what the Spirit of God has brought to my attention. Not just in the verses above, but in the entirety of God’s Word.
God’s greatest command is to love Him with all our hearts, right? And His second greatest is to love others as ourselves, right? In the last verse above, the Lord Jesus Christ shows us what the kind of love God calls us to have looks like. And this is the message in all the verses above.
The Lord calls us to HAVE love, cheerfulness, compassion, and mercy IN OUR HEARTS AND ATTITUDES and to SHOW love, cheerfulness compassion, and mercy IN OUR actions!
If we examine ourselves, and are honest with ourselves, some of us find we have love, etc., in our hearts but not in our actions. And some of us take what appear to be loving actions but have sin in our hearts like resentment, bitterness, judgment, pride, complaining, etc.
May the Spirit of God show each of us where we need to repent, may we repent, and in Christ’s love in the Spirit of God’s strength for God’s glory may we go forth in love for and obedience to God the way He calls us to love – in our hearts, and in our actions!