There is no more powerful word in the English language than.. LOVE. We use it when we speak of our children, we use it romantically, we use it when we talk about our friends, and we even use it when we talk about everyday objects! How many times do we hear statements like, " I love that car", or " I love this house"? In our society, we use the word love for everything. But are we really loving? Do we really understand the word? Let's take a few minutes and really examine the word love, from a Godly perspective.
I heard a Pastor, not too very long ago speak about loving selectively. For some reason this really had an impact on me. I have thought so much about his words in respect to my prayer life and my witnessing. I'm sure that most Christians have a love for lost souls, at least we should have! But is it a love that lasts? Many times we love a person in order to change them. We will meet someone, and see them as someone that needs saved. We imagine what a great Christian they would make. You think to yourself, What a great testimony it would be for this person to get saved! I bet they would be a wonderful prayer warrior. Or What a good Sunday School Teacher they would make! And we start to pray for them. We pray that the Holy Spirit would deal with them. We ask God to send His convicting power on them. But often that person will not listen to the Holy Spirit, and we see our work as being in vain. And then the worst happens, we give up. We decide that since we did not change the person, then it isn't worth our time anymore. Usually, we move on to a new person, we find a new "project". Is this true love? NO! If we love only for the purpose of changing a person, then it is not true love. True love is unconditional, and knows no bounds. Even though someone doesn't get saved when we want, we should never give up! We need to continue to love and pray for the person, even as they live in their unrepentent sin. Of course we don't love the sin, but we love the sinner! This is true love.Not only this, but we can not change anyone ourself. It MUST come from God!
As Christians we need to understand love as taught by our Lord in the scriptures. In John 15:13, Christ tells us " Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." These are some of the most powerful words in the scriptures! Can you imagine loving someone enough to die for them? I'm sure many of us would die for our children. We would die for our spouse. We would even die for some of our friends.But would we die for a lost soul? I know someone who did just that! His name is Jesus Christ, and His love for us knows no end! To think that He died a horrible, slow death on the cross at Calvary is sometimes too hard to even think about. But He did it, and because of this, we can trust in that and know Him and live with Him eternally in Heaven! All that it takes is trusting and calling on the name of Jesus, and truly repenting of our sins!
Why would anyone choose to spend an eternity in Hell, when you can have a home eternally in Heaven?You have a choice. If you are reading this and you are lost, all you have to do is bow down right now and make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life. If you invite Him in, He will come. Just ask Him to forgive you of your sins, to come into your heart, and let the Holy Spirit have His way!
I pray that this has helped someone out there. If it is just 1 person, then it is worth it all! God Bless You! And remember 1 Thessalonians 5:17,"Pray without ceasing." |
