How much do we actually really care for others, have others on our mind rather than ourselves? Is our day filled with us, or do we think about what we can do for someone else to brighten their day? Are we easily upset when things don’t go as we have planned, or are we open to a sudden change of plans, that may benefit someone else?
If you have ever sat at the feet of Jesus you will know that He is constantly growing us up in His love, as to prefer the other person. As we bring your problems to Him, He will talk to us about what we can do for Him, which always has to do with others. Sometimes it may seem as though He may not have heard your request because He answers you with an act of kindness, something He needs done for one of His children.
He is teaching us when we sow love; acts of kindness in someone else’s life, those acts are seeds for that kindness to come back to us. It is not that God didn’t hear our prayer, He did and He is so graciously giving us the answer we need to that prayer—and that is to sow love.
Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained, or mocked [by mere pretensions or professions, or by His precepts being set aside.) [He inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God.] For whatever a man sows, that and [that only is what he will reap. 8 For he who sows to his own flesh (lower nature, sensuality) will from the flesh reap decay and ruin and destruction, but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And let us not lose heart and grow weary and faint in acting nobly and doing right, for in due time and at the appointed season we shall reap, if we do not loosen and relax our courage and faint.
It is quite clear if we sow to the Spirit we will reap from the Spirit—when we don’t faint. Many think they can sow for a time and when they don’t see anything happen in the time frame they have appointed—they feel justified to quit. God didn’t say try sowing to the Spirit, He said continue to act nobly, doing right and in due time, at the appointed season we will reap IF we don’t faint.
If we sow to the flesh we will face ruin and destruction. Sowing to the flesh is living our lives with our focus on ourselves which will result in living frustrated, self destructive lives. We don’t have to live that way; it is our choice to accept God and the good promises He offers to us or we can refuse Him and the good He wants to do for us.
When we sow to living His way we will live in peace and joy, we will live a life of an over comer because we choose Him. Not because we can do things His way on our own, but we making the choice to submit to Him gives Him permission to empower us to do His will.
Some say they don’t believe in hell because of their life here and now is hell. It is quite obvious those people are all about themselves, thinking of none other than their own things. What will I drink, wear, what about this and that in my life? So sad to watch knowing that if they would just get themselves off of their minds they could prevail in the Kingdom of God. They could have all of their problems taken care of, and even all of their dreams come true if they would just work to live in faith rather than fear.
Think with me today, how can we really make God’s kingdom come to pass in our lives? How can I serve Him by serving others, who do I know could use some encouragement, a kind gesture, or even just a hug? God’s way really is NOT hard!
Maybe you’re on the verge of divorce today. What if you took some love seeds and served your spouse instead of tear him or her down. Forget about what they did to you and do kind gestures for them. When you do, God will take away your pain, heal you and give you an abundance of peace, and joy.
Maybe you have sickness in your body and all you can think about is you. You only have you on your mind and those around you, you have treated roughly. It has been a season all about you! But, if you would have faith and cease from worrying you could turn your sickness into healing. Not only by trusting God, but by going out of your way to serve those who you have treated roughly—Love never fails. You could be a light instead of being dark. God’s way is good and kind and if we want His Kingdom benefits—we have to live them.
I would like to leave you with the Word to encourage you today.
The Way of Love
1 Corinthians 13 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2 If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. 3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled. MSG
Your Prayers Won’t Get Off the Ground
Isaiah 58 1-3 “Shout! A full-throated shout!
Hold nothing back—a trumpet-blast shout!
Tell my people what’s wrong with their lives,
face my family Jacob with their sins!
They’re busy, busy, busy at worship,
and love studying all about me.
To all appearances they’re a nation of right-living people—
law-abiding, God-honoring.
They ask me, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’
and love having me on their side.
But they also complain,
‘Why do we fast and you don’t look our way?
Why do we humble ourselves and you don’t even notice?’
3-5 “Well, here’s why:
“The bottom line on your ‘fast days’ is profit.
You drive your employees much too hard.
You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight.
You fast, but you swing a mean fist.
The kind of fasting you do
won’t get your prayers off the ground.
Do you think this is the kind of fast day I’m after:
a day to show off humility?
To put on a pious long face
and parade around solemnly in black?
Do you call that fasting,
a fast day that I, God, would like?
6-9 “This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’
A Full Life in the Emptiest of Places
9-12 “If you get rid of unfair practices,
quit blaming victims,
quit gossiping about other people’s sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
firm muscles, strong bones.
You’ll be like a well-watered garden,
a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,
restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
make the community livable again.
13-14 “If you watch your step on the Sabbath
and don’t use my holy day for personal advantage,
If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy,
God’s holy day as a celebration,
If you honor it by refusing ‘business as usual,’
making money, running here and there—
Then you’ll be free to enjoy God!
Oh, I’ll make you ride high and soar above it all.
I’ll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob.”
Yes! God says so! MSG