Day 352: Life Is Funny (Part 2)

Romans 5:3-4

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

James 1:3

because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

Growing up my mom would always tell me, “What doesn’t kill you will only make you stronger.” She would usually say this as a result of me getting another rejection from an audition or talent agency telling me no, or not getting the part in the school play. But she would also tell me it whenever something happened in my life that made me feel like my life was over. As I got older, the pain got worst and the situations became more real. When I got my first heartbreak, when I was betrayed by my friends, when I went through a bad break up, and when my father died. I always went back to those few words that my mom would say to me when I was younger to let me know that everything was going to be alright. And sure enough it was, but it took time. It’s funny how life works that way. The same things that hurt us are the same things that strengthen us.

The people that have hurt us and walked out of our lives. The experiences that has taken our breath away, not in the good way. The boyfriends and girlfriends that cheated or just did us wrong. These experiences are just small hiccups compared to how life is truly going to be. These moments are lessons to teach us who we are, and also how strong we are. As crazy as it sounds God uses our pain to heal us. I would never know what true forgiveness felt like if I had never forgiven my friends who walked out on me. I had to face them. I would never know that  heart can be healed after it’s been shattered if I never faced my father's death. I would have never known that i could be put back together again if I never face the fears of my past. The triggers that tormented me for so long.

I say life is funny because we never think that the most traumatic experiences in our lives would be the biggest moments of growth. We never think that our biggest mistakes would lead us to the place we are at the moment. We as people have go through so much and will go through so much more, but our past experiences equip us for what’s ahead, and it’s not always heartbreak. Suffering is a part of life, it isn’t life itself. As the scripture tells us our sufferings produce perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character hope. I know many of us can say that we have come out a better person. We have become stronger people.

What I want you to get out of all of this is,whatever you do don’t let the suffering overtake you. It won’t kill you, and with that being said it will be another building block into who you are. God loves you so much and He wants you to succeed, but that does not mean that we will not suffer. We will have to go through some growing pains. As long as we live there will always be pain, and hurting but it’s only for a moment. Pain is a part of life. If Jesus had to suffer the way He did we can take a bit of heartache. Our suffering does not define us, it’s a part of life. However, as much as pain is a part of life, so is joy, so is peace and happiness. So is love, and courage, so is faith. Good things are a part of life too.  But how we react to the suffering and the pain, how we allow it to affect us, that does define who we are.

All this to say, if we take a step back and look we will see how funny life is when it goes around. The things that we meant to break us are the very things God uses to build us. Whatever you do, let it be a building block.

Reflection

1. Can you think of something in your life that hurt you but in the end made you a stronger better person?

Prayer Time

Take the time to pray about what we discussed today. Thank God that life is just as beautiful as it is scary, if not more.  Thank God that He uses the things we go through to make us into better people.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 354!

Day 341: Crazy Love!

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

Romans 13:10

Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

1 Peter 4:8

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

Has love ever caught you by surprise? Like have you ever been overtaken by love and didn’t realize it until something happens and you know only love could make you do something like that? They say love makes you do some crazy things, that can be both good and bad. But today we want to talk about the good kind of crazy love.

Love will take you by surprise sometimes, and sometimes it’s unintentional. I cannot stay mad at anyone, even when I try I cannot hold a grudge against anyone because my love for whoever it is is greater. I have too much compassion and it’s all Jesus’ fault. He made me like this. He did this to me. It may sound funny, but I’m serious. Sometimes I just want to be mad, like give me time to sulk and get over it. Just let me be angry sometimes, I’ll get over I just don’t want to get over it at this exact moment. But then I’m reminded of the scriptures and how Jesus loves us and forgives us, and how we are called to love one another. I’m reminded that love covers the multitude of sins. I’m reminded that love forgives, and does no harm. I’m reminded of all these things and I start to ask myself what would Jesus do. Then the next thing I know I’m praying for that person, because I love them so much. Because God loves them so much and God loves me, and His love is within me. I cannot help but to love His people the way He loves them.  

Our hearts are set up a certain way, they are set up in Christ, they have been captured by the Lord. This heart in me, that heart in you has been purified by the Holy Spirit and made new. This heart God has complete ownership over. Therefore we love like God and live like Christ. That means we love even when we do not want to. It means that the love we have in our hearts will catch us by surprise, and sometimes that’s how we know it’s genuine because we aren’t even trying to love but it happens. We aren’t even trying to live like Christ but our hearts have been captivated by Him so it just happens. That’s that crazy kind of love I’m talking about. It’s crazy because sometimes we don’t want it, but we cannot help it. Sometimes we love people so much only to have them not love us an ounce back. It’s the crazy love that says even though you sin against me and nail me to a cross I will ask God to forgive you while you are in the act of killing me.  That’s the love that is in us and we wonder why we can do no harm to our neighbor even when they harm us. We wonder why we have so much compassion for people even when our mind tells us they don’t deserve it, the heart does something different. We have to follow our hearts, because God is in our hearts. When our hearts are full on God, everything that comes out of them will be just like Christ. Yes, that will catch us by surprise sometimes but it is the best feeling ever! It is great to know that God is so good that He makes us good as well. God’s love towards us is so unconditional that we learn to love people without condition. It’s beautiful.

All this to say, walking with God will have us loving people even when we want to do everything but that. But love is the key to living. Love is the key to peace. Love is everything we need. God is love.

Reflection

1. Has love ever caught you by surprise?
2. If yes to the above question, elaborate.

Prayer Time

Take the time to talk to God about love. Thank God that He loved us first. Thank Him that He teaches us how to love and how to live. Whatever is on your heart talk to God about it.

I love you so much and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for day 342!

Day 335: This Is True Love

1 John 4:7-12

7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

It is widely known that our foundation is built on love, God is love, our very existence stems from love. We talk so much about how important it is to love God and love people. This message will never get old. Throughout the bible the common theme is love. God loved us first. God is love. God so loved… Love God, love your neighbor. It is so important that we as people of God move in love. The main reason being is that God is love, with that being said, how can we move in any other way? How can we walk without love if we walk with God, it is impossible. Everything about God screams loves. If we do not know God then we do not know love, it’s that simple.

God shows us how to love, He shows us what real and true love is. He shows us through His actions, God loves us enough to give us life and provide for us. He loves us enough to create an entire universe that will sustain us until we are united with Him in eternity. The greatest acts of love we have ever seen is when He sent His Son to die on a cross for us, and when Jesus willingly took our shame and death so that we wouldn’t have to. That right there is true love.

As the scripture says real love is not that we loved God but God first loved us. We did not do anything to deserve this love, there was nothing we did to make God love us He just loves us. That’s it, He loves us, that love is unconditional. This type of love never runs out. If one thing I know. I know that God will never stop loving us. Even when we are living in sin, we know that because while in our sin God loved us enough to sacrifice His own child for us to have a life that would be freed from the bondage of sin. The scripture then tells us to take that love that God has given us and love His people. He teaches us how to love so that we can love others. So that we can give people a glimpse of  what God’s love is like. The love of God lives in us, God is in us and when that is true, when God has taken root in ur hearts we will love people with a Godly love that we never knew existed. That type of love is when we can’t really help ourselves. We just love. Even when we want to be mad at people and hold a grudge we can’t because God is love, and that love is running through us.

There’s an old saying that love makes the world go round. I cannot say that that statement is not true, because love is literally holding earth in place, keeping the world turning as the seasons change. Love can change people. Love can pierce evil. Love can heal or soften a broken and hardened heart. We need love, love is what keeps us going everyday. Love is our foundation. Life is so much better when we love. Through love comes peace, joy, kindness, forgiveness, humility, faith. Love makes the world a better place. Thank God that He is love.

Response/ Prayer Time

Take the time to respond to what we discussed today. Talk to God about love and true love. Talk to Him about loving our neighbors. Whatever is on your heart, pour it out to God.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 336!

Day 325: Patience My Love

Psalms 27:14
Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD.
This past Sunday at church we talked about seasons, and sang a song called seasons. One of the main lyrics that stood out to me in this song was, “If you’re not done working, then God I’m not done waiting.” This struck a chord with me because it gave me a new perspective on waiting on God. When we are waiting on God we often wait as if we are waiting for our health. We wait because we sometimes think that God just wants to see how faithful we can be while we wait, and that is part of it. But sometimes we act as if God is only making us wait because He can, we act as of God is making us wait for no reason at all. But have we ever considered that the reason we are still waiting is because God is not done working? I must say that this never crossed my mind until this pat Sunday night when I heard this song. We often act as if we are only waiting on God to hand us a blessing when He is good and ready. But when God is done working that’s when it becomes ready.
I love the declaration that this song makes, “If you are not done working, then God I’m not done waiting.” That is to say, God as long as you are working on me and with me, I’ll be waiting. As long as you need to work I will be here patiently waiting for you to finish. Our problem is we want things prematurely, we want God to bless us when it’s not time or it not ready. We want God to use and send us before He’s done working on us. There is so much truth in the statement, “Good things come to those who wait.” I am taken back to the story of the prodigal son who did not want to wait for His inheritance but sought after and got it prematurely. He was not ready for such a blessing yet and we see that as he goes out and squanders all of his money. He comes back to His father with nothing but a lesson. He comes back knowing his mistakes. How many of us have tried to push God’s hand? How many times have we done something before we were ready. God is building us and molding us into the person He wants to be. He’s making us into the person He needs us to be in order to receive what He has for us. God loves us some much that even though He wants to bless us He wants to prepare us to be able to hold and sustain the blessings and riches He will hail upon our lives. It’s like He’s standing there saying, “Patience my love. I’m still working. Sometimes we're like little kids who want things that moment and we don’t want to wait but it’s like God is saying, “Patience, my child. I’m still working.” We just have to wait it out and receive what God is doing in us and for us in the meantime. We get so impatient with God sometimes because things don’t go how we think they should in the time frame we want them to be done. But I don’t know how many times I can say and stress that God’s timing is perfect! He has never been off, not even by a millisecond. He knows what He’s doing. Just trust the process.

All this to say, If God is not done working then we should not be done waiting!

Reflection
1. Have you ever been impatient with God?
2. Have you ever tried to push God’s hand?
3. Have you ever done something you weren’t ready for? If so what was the outcome?

Prayer Time
Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer today. Talk to God about patience and ask Him to help you with it.
I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 326!

Day 311: Guard Your Heart, Don't Block It

Proverbs 4:23

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

Ezekiel 36:26

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Block- to obstruct

Guard- To keep safe from harm or danger , protect

I’m sure many of us have lived by Proverbs 4:23, as we should. We have set our sights on protecting our hearts. So we will not get hurt, or so that it will not be abused. Sometimes we’re trying to protect ourselves from the wrong things. What I mean is that we sometimes have our hearts so guarded that we forget how to let those guards down. Guarding our hearts becomes building walls around it so that nothing and no one can come in. Our generation is so afraid of being hurt that we would rather be numb. We would rather not feel anything. I understand that heartbreak happens, at this age many of us have had our hearts broken at least once, but we’re still here. God put our hearts back together and shows us everyday how we should be loved.

We have so many walls built, from hurt, disappointment, betrayal, abandonment, the list can go on and on. It like every time something happens to us we build a new wall and eventually our hearts become unreachable. We forget how to feel, we don’t know how to love or be loved because we are so guarded. We are so blocked off from everything that we don’t even let God in.

Why are we so afraid to let love in? In the sense that God is love, no one can love us the way God will, but sometimes we can be so guarded that we can’t even knock down the walls to let Him in. The amazing thing about God is, He will knock those walls down and pursue our hearts. God wants our hearts, He loves us so much, but we sometimes turn away from that love. We turn away because we view God’s love through natural eyes, not seeing  that His love is supernatural. We don’t realize that God will love us more than the people who broke our hearts, He will not break our hearts, He will not stop loving us. Sometimes we allow our experiences to influence of perception of who God is. When the truth is, our experience with God should change how we perceive the world, ourselves, and other people. We cannot learn to love properly if our heart is caged by walks we’ve built to try to protect it. When we do that we distance ourselves from God and His people.

With that being said we must not assume that everyone is out to get us.

I remember a point in my life where I was so guarded that I wouldn’t allow anyone to love me, or get close to me because everyone that said they loved me turned on me and walked out of my life in an instant. After that I assumed that everyone was the same way, I thought everyone was just going to break my heart. I made it very hard for people to love me, as well as for me to love people because I could not bare the pain of having my heart shattered again. It was like anyone new I met would have to go through a trial run before I would let them completely in, just to make sure they weren’t going to hurt me. I closed myself off because up unto that point in my life had found that love hurts. Then God showed me, love should not hurt in this way. He showed me how I should be loved, by sent people, good, genuine people into my life that would not be there to use me, or hurt me, but people who would wholeheartedly love me. It threw me, because I was expecting them to walk out of my life, and treat me the same the others did. But they didn’t, God sent them to show me what true love looks like.

-Dyamond

A lot of what we go through when it comes to this is, we cannot trust people, we refuse to trust people or we find it very hard to trust people. Also the inability to completely trust and give our hearts to Christ. The first thing we must do is trust God with our hearts. He made the human heart, He tends to every need. If anyone knows how to love us, it’s God. We have to trust that God will not allow us to hurt beyond what we can handle. And yes sometimes we will go through heartbreak, it’s a part of life, trusting God with our heart doesn’t mean we’ll never hurt again, it means that in those moments we trust God to put us back together, and so much better than before. We trust Him to love us through the pain and aches.

All this to say, we cannot allow what has happened to us in the past influence how we love people in the present and the future. Guard your heart, and protect but don’t block it and lock it away. God wants our hearts but we have to be willing to trust Him with it.

Reflection

1. Have you ever had your heartbroken?
2. Did it cause you to close yourself off?
3. Have you ever found yourself guarding your heart from God?
4. Why do think it is so hard for us to trust God and people with our hearts?
5. Discuss this.

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer, have a conversation with God about what we discussed today. Search yourself and see if you are blocking your heart and let God in.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 312!

Day 95: Let's Talk About It- "Broken People"

Psalms 147:3

He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.

Psalms 34:28

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit.

This generation gets a lot of slack for acting out, we are constantly told to get our lives together. I think many times when we see people who are acting out, or having a hard time giving themselves to Christ, we must consider that these are broken people. We live in an age where people are walking around completely broken with a smile on their face. People are walking around ready to take their own lives but will smile and say, “I’m okay”. Why do we wait until tragedy strikes to notice that someone needed our ear, or they needed our prayer. They didn’t need us to beat them over the head with a bible, they needed us to be there. We have people walking around feeling unloved, and never knew that someone could love them. We are often told what we did to be in the position that we are in. Something we have to realize is that sin isn’t the only thing that causes brokenness within humanity, There is heartbreak, relationships gone wrong, death, mental illness, tragic accidents, natural disasters. There are so many things that can break a heart, but only one can truly heal a heart. Yet we have people walking around because they are unaware of this magnificent healing. We know of this healing, we know that Christ is our healer, but can we relay that message to the young girl who suffers from an eating disorder and cuts herself. Can we tell that to the young boy struggling with body image issues. Can we acknowledge that there is a deeper issue to the brokenness of people.  We are good at acknowledging pain and hurt, but what are we doing to make sure these people receive healing from God? Why are brushing off people’s pain? We have been told to let it go, let God, surrender, but what about when the wound is fresh and we can’t let it go that night or day. What if just lifting our hands in church won’t take the pain away, I have to be honest. Why do we sweep these things under the rug and act as if they are not there. There are broken people, we were once one of them, and many of us still are.

As the body of Christ we must see past what we think of people, we must look past our judgements and see the heart of humanity. We have to take our eyes off of ourselves for a second and look outward to see the brokenness of this world.

We see the flaws of humanity, and but we don’t see the heart of man. If we did we would know that the person who is walking down the street talking to themselves isn’t crazy they lost everything including hope and no one took the chance to listen to their story. No one took the time to sit with them and lend an ear. No one stopped to pray for them. No one took the time to tell them that there is healing in the Lord, that He sees the hearts of humanity even the ones that are in pieces.

We live in an era where everything must be okay, and when it’s not we put up a facade. This generation has the best poker faces I have ever seen. Because we don’t have time to deal with people who are really suffering, even if that means we ignore our own pain. We don’t have time to dig deep down to the root of our issues and be healed by God. We cover it up with a band-aid until the infection spreads and we can no longer hide it.  We have lost the ability to be vulnerable, we’d rather walk around dying on the inside than go to someone with our pain. We do not want to look weak, even when we are, The scripture tells us that God is near the brokenhearted, why are we walking around harboring pain. We have to realize that it is okay not to be okay.

I walked around broken for so many years, harboring so much pain, anger, self-loathing, hate, the list goes on. From being bullied all throughout school starting at the age of five. From looking in the mirror at the age of seven and hating who I was, and literally saying to myself, “You’re black and ugly”. To choking and hitting myself at the age of eight because the bullying was so bad, I felt like I needed to inflict pain on myself. I suffered secretly for years, and alway put on a smile and pretended like I was okay. It was only when I was twenty one that I really found healing in Christ. I felt like I always had to be okay, I had to put on a mask that said I was strong and confident even though I was broken. I was in pieces, there was still a little girl inside me who never got healed. I was walking around preaching at different churches at the age of sixteen and planned out my suicide at seventeen because I was in so much turmoil that I could not handle it anymore. Or when I had a mental breakdown when I lost my father at the age of eighteen. Because I blamed myself for His death and couldn’t understand why GOd would choose to take him from me. I gave up on GOd and church, but I had people praying for me, there were a few people who could see past my poker face, and that is why I am here today. Someone looked past my acting out and my mask and saw that I was broken. I am living proof that Christ is our healer. I did not have a platform or a place to really talk about what I was going through at the time, which is why I’m doing this, If I have to air my dirty laundry to save someone else I will do it. But God healed me and repaired my heart and if someone didn’t take the time to sit with me and pray for me and see through my pain, I would not be here today. I would probably be dead by my own hand. It is important that we talk about this stuff because it can literally save a life.  

We live in a broken world and people are walking around broken. We know what it is like to be broken our have our hearts broken. If we have encountered the love of God we know what it is like to be healed by our one and only healer. We must  let people know that their is a God, there is a Savior who can take that pain away.

I don’t know who you are but if that’s you, know that there is a Savior. Jesus Christ died to save this broken world, he wants that heart, even if it’s broken. Especially if it’s broken. Even if you have to give it to Him in pieces, he will take it and put it back together. You’re not crazy, you’re not a bad person, you’re hurting. Today is the day for you to get rid of that pain, and start a journey of healing. You do not have to hide it or cover it up. God sees your heart in every condition and He wants it the way it is, so that he can fix it and heal it.

Reflection

1. How’s your heart? Are you broken?
2. Are there some things that need to be healed in your life?
3. Are you walking around like everything is okay but it’s not?
4. Do you believe that God is our healer?
5. Do you believe that He can and will heal you?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions  guide your prayer today. Know that God is our healer. We call Him, Jehovah-Rapha, the Lord who heals. Pray for the brokenness of humanity, and if you are broken, bring that heart to God today. Talk to GOd about whatever it is, maybe you don’t even have words, maybe it's tears, maybe you don’t even have that. Just open your heart to God and give HIm what you have. Know that He can heal the broken.

If you need someone to talk to or pray with, reach out to someone. I’m open to talk as well, you can email me, (TheDyamondj@gmail.com).

I love you, I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Share this with someone and open the conversation up to talk about it. Have an amazing day and come back tomorrow for Day 96.

Day 66: The Character of God

This week we will dive into the character of God. We often have this image in our heads that God is some unapproachable, angry, commanding being. But that is not true, He is quite the opposite there is so much to Him that we need to learn and understand but first we have to get past our assumptions of who he is, so that we get to know Him.

1 John 4:8

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

First thing to know: God is love. His character is love.

The scriptures tells us that God is love, then goes on to explain what love is. Knowing that God is love we can take all those attributes and know that they come from a God who is kind, patient and loving. The love of God is so sweet, and beautiful. We must look at God that same way. Knowing that even though He does get angry, it is never permanent, His love for us is greater than anger. God is the most loving being in the universe. How did we get from that to viewing Him as an angry old guy who doesn’t want us to enjoy life. We have it all wrong, He is anything but resentful, and judgemental, He is compassionate, kind, merciful, full of grace. God is our father, we have to treat Him like one. Everything He does, He does out of love. We have to stop listening to people tell us that if we don’t obey a set of rules God will be angry at us.

We as Christians tend to talk a lot about sin and punishment. But we forget about grace and mercy.

I went to a church where the pastor always told us to either do something a certain way or we are going to hell. Being new to my faith I believed it. I started to view God as a being that I should fear. And I did, I thought God to constantly be judging me and waiting for me to sin so that He could punish me. Everything I did was so that I would not be punished or go to hell. I was so wrong.  

-Dyamond

Fear- reverential awe, especially toward God:

We talk about the fear of God, as if we are to really fear Him in a sense of what He will do to us. This causes us to not give our all to Him. We cannot have a relationship with God is we are afraid to speak to Him. It’s hard to genuinely love someone when you are constantly afraid of what they will do to you. When the bible speaks of the fear of God, it is to mean, respect, gratitude, standing in awe of who He is. It is rooted in love. The fear of God isn’t about worrying about what God will do to us if we don’t obey, it is more about loving Him so much, and having so much gratitude and respect for Him that we don’t want to disobey Him. Or we don’t want to sin against Him because we know it will separate us from Him. Fear rooted in love, it sounds crazy but when we think about it in a biblical sense it makes sense.

God loves us so much that He is in constant pursuit of our heart, He went through drastic measures to have us near HIm again, we are His children, His babies. He holds us in His arms like a father holds his newborn child. We have to break down that wall that we put between ourselves and God, and dive into who He really is. Dive into intimacy with Him. Dive into a relationship with Him, so that we can understand His character, and see past our own assumptions and get to know God for who He really is.

Reflection

1. How do you view God?
2. Is God a scary being to you?
3. How have you been told to view God?

Prayer Time

Allow you answers to the above questions guide you prayer. Remembering that God is love and knowing the characteristics of love. Ask God to show you His character, to show you who He truly is. Ask HIm to take away the assumptions and see Him for who He is.

I love you, and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Make sure you share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 67!

Day 62: How Far Will You Go (Part 3)

As we bring this small series to an end, I want to talk about loving others, and how far we will go to show someone that they are love, not only by us but by Christ as well.

One of my favorite stories in the bible is the story of paralyzed man who was carried to the roof, and let down so that He could get His healing from Jesus. These men could have kept walking and ignored this man, but instead they decided to do everything in their power to get him to Jesus. When they couldn't get through the door, they went to roof and started drilling a hole. Not only did they do that but they carried him up to the roof, and lowered him into the house. When they couldn’t find a way, they made a way. That’s love, only love will make you do something like that.

Luke 5: 18-19

18 Some men took a man who was not able to move his body to Jesus. He was carried on a bed. They looked for a way to take the man into the house where Jesus was. 19 But they could not find a way to take him in because of so many people. They made a hole in the roof over where Jesus stood. Then they let the bed with the sick man on it down before Jesus.

Are we willing to spend our time helping others, making sure they get what they need?

There are a couple of other stories I’d like to point out as well.

Acts 4: 32-37

There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

The people in this community made sure that everyone had what they needed. That meant giving up their own possessions, and sacrificing what they had to make sure that no one was in need. Sometimes we have to be willing to give up something for others, and not expect anything in return. That is one way to love our neighbor, to take care of them when they are in need. To make sure that they are okay. We are supposed to love one another as we love ourselves (Mark 12:31).

Luke 10:25-37

25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

Jesus gives us the perfect example of what it means to love our neighbor time and time again. He also shows us what it means to love our neighbors. When we learn to love like Christ and use that love towards others we are showing people what it means to know the love of God.

1 John 3:18

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

Reflection

1. How can you improve the way you love people?
2. Are you willing to take that extra step or mile, sacrifice, or take that detour for the sake of your brothers and sisters in Christ?
   
   
   
   

Prayer Time

Allow you answers to the above questions guide your prayer today. Ak God to help you show love to His people, to love them the way He loves. Take the time to pray for your brothers and sisters and lift them up in prayer. Thank God for them, and the opportunity to love them.

I love you, I hope you have an amazing day or evening, make sure you share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 63!