Hi everyone. Let me tell you
above Love No Limit. For all you Mary J. Blige fans, this isn’t
the same type of love. You know that the greatest action Jesus
calls you to is love – to love God, and to love other people. Yet responding to
that simple call is often surprisingly difficult. In this fallen world where
people often don’t seem lovable and loving actions seem to demand too much time
and energy, you may think of many great excuses for limiting your love or
placing conditions on it.
But Jesus continues
to call you to love as He does, without conditions or limits. If you dare to
respond to His call, He will empower you to put love into action, no matter what.
Here’s how you can love as Jesus does:
Be
there. Just as Jesus loved
people by actually coming to Earth to be present with them, He calls us to
spend time with people, rather than just thinking about, emailing, calling, texting, or agreeing them; or talking about how much you love them. So
make time to be present with the people you sense God is calling you to reach out
to, and be willing to sacrifice other pursuits so you can give them your
undivided attention when you’re together.
Let go of
religion. Don’t try to impress
God with religion. Instead, invest your efforts in what God really cares about:
simply incorporating love into your life to the fullest extent.
Express your love in
audacious ways. Use your God-given
creativity to express your love boldly to others, whenever you have an
opportunity to do so. Give your love to others freely, with abandon. Enjoy
whimsical ways of showing others you love them.
Learn from your
failures. When other people
reject you or when you fail to reach them with your love, don’t despair.
Instead, ask God to show you what He wants you to learn from the experience.
Don’t give up your efforts to love people to the fullest, even when it costs you
a lot to do so, because God promises that it will worth it.
Open doors for
others. Express your love
for people by doing whatever you can to give other people good opportunities in
life – from giving blood to helping sick and injured people heal or, feeding the
hungry and helping unemployed people find jobs.
Expect God to use
you even though you’re broken. Realize that
brokenness doesn’t disqualify you from serving God by serving others; in fact,
it helps you, because it gives you more compassion for people in need.
Believe me, there’s always someone in a worse condition than you.
God will use you in His kingdom work despite and even
because
of
the brokenness in your life. All you need to do is just say “yes”
to God in every situation, and rely on the strength that He will give you.
Remember that God, who invites you, is much stronger than the
obstacles in your life.
Give
generously. Make a habit of
regularly and generously giving your resources (such as time, talent, energy,
and money) to support God’s work on Earth. Your ordinary efforts
will change the world in extraordinary ways when you give to express love for
God and others. If you’re having trouble giving generously, make sure that
you’re deriving your sense of security from your relationship with Jesus, which
is unshakable and it will give you the confidence you need to give
freely.
Learn how to receive
when you’re in need. You can learn just
as much about love from graciously accepting help from others when you are in need;
as you can from giving to others in need. Don’t let pride stand in
your way. Also, God may want to teach others about love by allowing
them to help you. So allow people the opportunity to help you when you
need help, particularly during a crisis.
Communicate
encouraging words. Ask God to help you
use encouraging words whenever you speak and write to others; those words can
powerfully convey love to them.
Give people
grace. Keep in mind how
much grace God has given you through Jesus, and let your gratitude for that
motivate you to be graceful with others who have made mistakes.
Choose the right
friends. Since you become
like the people you often spend time with, it’s important to surround yourself
with loving people who will inspire you to become a more loving person yourself.
Clean up your Facebook page by letting go of people who are really
not your friend; maybe an acquaintance or just someone you know or even someone
who influence you to become more selfish; and embrace new friendships with people
who challenge you to put love into action more in your life.
Live for an audience
of one. Live to please God
alone, rather than other people. When you respond to God’s calls
to serve others, don’t expect recognition or appreciation from people for doing
so; see that as a bonus, but not necessary. Help others in secret
when you can, as a way of expressing your love for God purely, without any
strings attached.
Be real with
others. Don’t hide who you
really are behind a fake image when you reach out to other people.
Ask God to give you the confidence you need to risk being open,
honest, and vulnerable in your relationships with others. That’s
the only way you can authentically express love to them.
Pick a fight instead
of an opinion. When you’re
disturbed by a specific issue of injustice in the world, go beyond just forming
an opinion about it. Ask God to help you actually do something about it. Take
whatever steps God leads you to take to fight injustice, no matter how much it
costs you to do so. Be a part of changing the world by helping to turn something
that’s wrong into something that’s right.
Forgive those who
have hurt you. Rely on God’s help to follow His command to
forgive the people who have hurt you, and always keep in mind how much God has
forgiven you, thanks to Jesus. As you move forward, unclench
your fists and relate to people in a “palms up” way, by continuing to love
others without fear because you’ve chosen to trust in the power of God’s love
working through your life.
PLAIN AND SIMPLY, JUST LOVE WITH NO LIMIT!
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