Love Serves

Love you all, praying for you,
 
I just love God’s Word.  It’s the Love Book.  A love story.  The love of your Father in Heaven, for you.  Undeserved, unlimited, unexpected, unchanging, and unending.  It’s also the Opposite Book.  It’s the opposite of what you’d think... God’s Ways always are.  The difference between God’s way and Man’s way - is like heaven above earth.  The way that seems right, isn’t always right.  The way that seems best isn’t always best.  The way that you would think, is not the way that brings you what you really need, or really want.  God’s way is always the opposite of man’s way – as high as the heavens are above the earth.  That’s why PRISM Topics are so important, how you think about a certain thing… if you know what God thinks about it, you would think differently.  The world talks a lot about love.  The world says a lot of things.  Love hurts, love stinks, love is blind, if you love something set it free.  Love is never having to say you’re sorry.  It almost becomes laughable.  No that’s not what love is.  Here’s what love is.  Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not selfish, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth, it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails.  Love treats God like He deserves.  Love treats others better than ourselves.  Love lays down its life for its friend. Love overlooks faults, Love Forgives, Love Gives, and Love Serves.  One time Jesus and His disciples were invited to dinner at the house of a Pharisee.  The common courtesy and standard practice of washing the guests feet had been omitted, so Jesus before the meal – the guest of honor – got up from the table, wrapped a towel around himself, and washed the dirty feet of His disciples.  He said, what I have done for you, this do for each other.  Serve is another one of those opposites.  It doesn’t come naturally, it requires a choice.  Serve is the opposite of selfish, it’s selfless.  They say time is money, maybe that’s why we aren’t inclined to serve.  Time isn’t really money.  Time is time and money is money.  Time is traded for money – but time is far more valuable than money.  Unless you are penniless, then you will work for two hours just for a meal, but in general, especially as you grow older, time is more valuable than money.  You can always get more money, but you can’t get more time, that’s why people hire other people to door dash their dinner, deliver their groceries, detail their car, clean their house or cut their grass. They value their time more than the money it costs to save them that time.  That’s why serving may be so unnatural.  Serving is giving, the giving of time.  Sometimes its easier to just write the check.  But love serves.  It gives the time to help someone else.  It’s a demonstration of humility, and a demonstration of love.  Love Serves -  Have you ever noticed that the hardest people to serve are the ones closest to you?  Perhaps because of our tendency to take for granted, those closest to us.  Like the mom, picking up her child from a sleep over – only to hear the host mom gushing over what a wonderful child she has,  They helped with the dishes, they even helped my daughter clean her room, what a delightful child you have raised.  And the Mom while smiling graciously is thinking – are we talking about the same child, maybe she has me confused with another Mom…  It’s easier to serve others, than those closest to you.  But that’s what Jesus did, and what He instructed his disciples to do.  Those who follow Christ – serve.  They look to the needs of others, over their own. Praying that today – you will check in with your Father in Heaven to see if His plans for you today – include serving someone else.  So you can be practiced in humility, and demonstrate love – even to someone closest to you.  Love serves.  Because it puts someone else above yourself.  Praying that you will love today – in any way that God reveals.  You might not have time to go do a ‘Habitat for Humanity day’ today, but you can serve in a smaller way.  It doesn’t have to take all day, the opportunities to lighten someone else’s load are everywhere.  Praying that God leads you in love today.  That you will remember what love is, and what love does.  Love serves. 
 
Love you all,
dad