Love Thy Neighbor

"Love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:39)

"Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." (1 John 4:11)

Having a job relating to people, a lifestyle of love is a requirement. Loving people through their pain and when they are at their very worst is not easy. I lose patience, I grow weary, and I at times feed into  the lie that change is not possible. God loves with an everlasting love, a love so deep that the ocean cannot even contain it. It's big, unconditional, love. This is the love I am called to love other people with. I realize that the reason I struggle to provide this love to others, is not because I don't see them as I should, it's because I don't see myself as I should. I don't love myself as I ought to. If I cannot properly receive God's love, then I cannot love myself, and I certainly cannot love others. God  wants my love for others to be based on the love I've received from Him. If I continue to wrestle with the idea that God loves me, the longer I am missing the ability to love others. Lord, please break down the walls of cynicism that I have built up around my heart. Get rid of the lie that Your love for me is based on my circumstances. Tear down the pillars of distrust in Your heart for me. Allow my heart to be vulnerable to Your grace. Allow my spirit attentive to Your sweet voice. And flood my life with a love so great that it overflows to those around me. May I love because You have loved me. 

Full Life

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." (John 10:10)

So much time I've spent wishing for different circumstances than those that are in front of me. I've wished to be back home around my close friends and family, I've wished I could be a part of leading worship again, I've wished I had a companion to walk through all the changes of life with. None of these desires are in and of themselves are bad, but the more I think on these things, the more I focus on the circumstances I wish were in front of me, the less contented I am with the circumstances that are actually in front of me. The more I say, "I wish," or "If only," the more I'm telling God that following Him isn't enough and the less I believe in the full life God intended for me to live out. Jesus came that I might have life to the full, and the enemy is trying to destroy that life. You know those times when I have a break down and I think, "I wish I could talk to someone back home that knows me well." Or times when I can't reach something up high or something is too heavy to lift and I think, "I could really use a man right now." I need to stop living in this attitude that there are things, people, circumstances that I need to come across in order to have a full life. In Christ, full life is here, it's now, and it's for me to partake in. I need to give my desires to God and delight myself in Him so that my desires become His desires. There is full joy in following God, even without a man by my side, even when I don't have opportunity to be a part of a worship team, and even when I'm miles away from the ones that know me best.