After
sitting under David’s preaching yet again, I was slapped in the face with this
reality. More often than not, how do I love the people around me? Efficiently.
Conveniently. And yet, David’s teaching centered around this fact:
“Genuine
love for others is NOT efficient and
it is NOT convenient.”
David
proved this by looking at the way Jesus loves in John 5:1-15. Jesus LOOKED
toward people, He FELT for people, and He HELPED people. We then saw that
Jesus’ love was completed in doing all three of these things. His help would
have been incomplete if he hadn’t first looked and felt for people. And his
looking upon helpless, needy people and feeling empathy for their circumstances
would have been incomplete if those things hadn’t driven Him to do something to
help. The same is true for us. Christ’s example of thorough, inconvenient,
sacrificial love is our Christian calling.
How
are you living out this calling, Christian?
Are
you task-oriented like me?
Are you busy like me?
Are you tired like me?
Take
heart. It is this thorough and inconvenient love which we have received in
Christ that He means for us to pour into the people around us. Do NOT neglect
the Sabbath the way I have. Simply rest
in Christ. Remember His work for you,
namely that He rescued you from the
powers of darkness and called You into His marvelous light to proclaim His
excellencies (1 Pet. 2). This is genuine love, felt & expressed for those
around you.
Look → Feel → Help | Rest → Remember → Rescue
