I wish that love would abound.
May God help us never forget where He found us. I have known what it is like to need help. It is too easy to throw people away or toss them off on someone else. It is too easy to turn our eyes away and not look at needs and say, "Someone else will do it", or "They did it to themselves, they deserve it." It takes an unusually wonderful person to receive someone who can do nothing to thank them and make their hopeless situation hopeful. Isn't this the nature of God? Isn't this what He did for us? Aren't we to imitate Him? That is what it means to be a 'Christian'; to be a Christ follower, one like Christ. A spirit rooted in Christ finds no joy in the words, "I told you so." A Christian alive in Christ naturally weeps with those who weep and rejoices with those who rejoice. Have you ever felt sorry for the person who deserved everything bad thing they had? A true Christian finds joy in the words, "Here, let me help you". God did not save us because we deserved it. He didn't do it because we needed it, which we definitely did. He saved us because He loves us. Our need provided His Way, but His love moved Him. The need of others is an invitation to us, but our love is what should motivate us. Otherwise, it's just another work. True religion is to remain spotless and to love the helpless so much that we help them. James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." God gave His all when we were least worthy. He loved the unlovely; you and me. Can we not at least show our gratitude for what He has done by doing what He did? If He is alive inside of us, we will, and we won't have to make ourselves do it, we will be compelled from within out of agape love, which can only come from you when God reigns in your heart. Philippians 2:13 "For it is God which worketh in you both to WILL and TO DO of his good pleasure." In our own ability, it is hard to love the unlovely because our love is conditional, but God's love is without condition. He does not love us more or less based on sin. Sin still pays in wages of death, but it does not affect God's love. God's love and justice are not the same. His love is unchanging for us. Nothing can separate us from THE LOVE OF GOD. This is why it is so terrible for sin to separate us from God even while He loves us so much. God is not willing that anyone should perish. Why? Because He loves us. This is how we are to love one another. LOVE is the highest calling as a believer. And not an overlooking love, but a love balanced in gentleness and truth. God doesn't require us to do what is easy, He requires us to do what is good and yet fully equips us to do what He requires. Love the unlovely.