Love in What You Do

Monday, October 8, 2018

Romans 12:9-13: Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

When we believe in God and what Jesus did for us, we have something grand. It is called faith. And faith DOES SOMETHING.

Faith Loves:
First of all, faith is active in love. We care for one another. We work with one another. We are passionate about our vision and mission. We are energetically moving forward. It is all derived from faith based love. 

With that said, what is the one thing that we want to avoid at all costs?

Being Lazy:
We want to avoid sitting down and doing nothing. I have heard many times, "I don't need to participate. Someone else will do it." What if everyone held that attitude? Would anything get done? Nope. That's laziness.

On the other side of the coin, we don't want to fill our time with busy work. You know what that is. It is stuff that we do that gives the appearance that we are productive and active doing ministry. That's laziness, too.

Faith Loves and Does:
In order to stem off laziness, faith, powered by the Holy Spirit, creates an attitude shift. Faith looks at the work of Jesus. Jesus did the painful, horrible, and life giving work. Did He shy away from it? NO! He showed love to His enemies and willingly went to the cross so that you and I will have forgiveness of sins. Jesus' blood washes us and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. And Jesus rose from death so that you and I will rise to newness of life by in the here and now and forever. 

SO...
Since Jesus did all of that out of His love for us, we take His love, make it our own, and we do! We take His love and make it real for the people around us. Instead of saying, "Someone else will do it." we say "What can I do?"

And it is not busy work. It is significant and real as we apply Jesus' love into someone else's life. The joy of love and life and faith will kick in so much that we want "outdo each other." We are passionate, zealous, and joyous with our love for Christ and Christ's love for us. So we love in what we do.

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