1 John 4:7

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  This is how God showed His love among us: He sent his one and only son into the world, that we might live through him.  This is love, not that we loved God, but that he first loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is made complete in us.”

 

So today as I write this, I am hit hard with the fact that I am probably the most selfish person out there…  I mean, if true love, the love that Jesus displayed, is to “consider others as better than myself,” then boy have I missed it!!  I honestly can’t go 5 minutes without thinking about myself..  I take so much time fussing over me…

  Im so sick of me!!!

Today I heard a statistic, that in Uganda, 140,000 kids are made into orphans every day!  I sit here, and after this im probably gonna go out and eat some lunch, maybe spend 10 bucks on myself, while on the other side of the world, kids just like me are going to go without a lunch… maybe without a dinner… maybe even for a few days…..

 

     What makes me so much better than them???

 

Why can I go for so long, only thinking about myself??!  I mean, its all about me!  Im seriously so disgusted!  God BREAK ME!!!!  I hate this about myself!! 

 

   The world is looking for someone who is real..  for someone who is different… for someone who is selfless….  That’s what John was saying in these verses..  That no one has ever seen God, but if we truly love, then something of his character shines through..  When we love, we show God, because HE IS LOVE!  When we are selfless, and really think of others as better than ourselves, then we truly begin to paint a picture of who our God is!

I read in Matthew 25 a few days ago, and it was talking about how when God returns, he will separate us like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats..  And basically, he is going to tell those who loved all people, no matter how gross they were, or how poor they were, or how “down and out” they were, to come on in and experience the fullness of God!  He says that every time, we go out of our way to help someone who is “lowly” in our minds, that we have done it for Him… we have helped HIM.  We have done it for God.  Our King.  Our Love.  Our Savior.

  How many times though, am I too caught up in myself, and my agenda, that I pass by God, and simply think that someone else will “take care of it?”  its really sickening…. If I could just learn to live life like Jesus did..  Im so sick of just being a “singer of songs, and a faker of life!”  Cause when I continue reading in Matthew, I see that the other people that God speaks too, are a lot like me.  He says to them: “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.  For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat.  I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink.  I was a stranger, and you did not invite me in.  I needed clothes, and you did not clothe me.  I was sick, and in prison, but you didn’t look after me. 

 

Wow. I don’t want to get to the end of my life, and realize that this whole time, I had it wrong!  I don’t want to look into the eyes of my God, and see disappointment. 

 

   You know, these 140,000 orphans shouldn’t have to stay like that forever.  Why not try and change this??  Why not become selfless and truly learn to love??  Why not pour out ALL of your life??  ALL of your dreams?? ALL of who you are??  See, at the end of all this, I don’t want to stand before God, having done nothing to show his love!  So, with this time that I have left, I am going to give it all to HIM!  Im sick of this!  SICK OF SELFISHNESS! 

 

Oh God, here I am.  Take me!  Every selfish bone on my body wants to run my own way, but you have called me to love you, and to love people.  That’s how they’re gonna know how great you are, by how much I love!!  It’s such a huge responsibility, but God, you are so worth it!!  Take me! ALL OF ME!!  EVERY PART!!  Let me learn to love!!  To live in love!!  To be love!!  To be God to every person I see!! It starts today God!  Start with me!

 

 

Friends, lets live this.  Love, Love, Love!!  Be love!!  Change your world!  Don’t wait for someone else to do it!  Catch a dream and go for it!  Don’t find yourself at the end, with God in front of you, saying “I never knew you…  you didn’t quite get it…  you didn’t live to love.”