Monday, January 25, 2016

January 26, 2016

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”  He answered, “‘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, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” Luke 10:26-28

So what?


So how do I know if I really love God?


I know I should love Him.


I think I love Him.


I want to love Him.


Is there a way I can know for sure?


Yes, there is! It is clearly defined in these verses!


You know you truly love God when you actually love others in the same way you love yourself!


Your natural inclination is to love yourself first and best and better than anyone else. You will fight for what is yours and cheat to get it if you have to. You want to win and make sure the other guy loses. So, when you find yourself suddenly wanting the best for another person. You know that God’s love is at work in your heart. When you find joy in the success and good fortune of others you know God has changed your heart! When you find yourself willing to do without so another person can have what you really wanted you know God’s love is resident in your heart and mind.


When you love God with all your heart, your heart will be tender and sensitive and sincere toward other people in the very same way God is tender, sensitive and sincere in His love toward you! And you will want to express that great love God has given you to others who may not have it. When your heart is hurting rather than nursing your hurt, you reach out to another one who is hurting and extend to them the love, support and comfort you would like someone to give to you that’s evidence you love God!


You know you love God with all your soul when you are willing to make yourself vulnerable to another person even though it frightens you and your instincts prompt you to protect yourself. When comforting another or affirming someone is more important to you than guarding your soul then you know it is the love of God at work in you!


Further evidence of God’s love resident in your heart is when you devote your strength, energy and efforts to another when you feel like you’re exhausted. You know God’s love is active in your life when you are more concerned with strengthening another person than you are about becoming weakened. Using your strength to shore up another person’s weakness so they appear to be the strong one and you are perceived as weak is a sign of God’s love at work in you!


One more sign you are fortified and filled with the love of God is when your mind is under the control of your Heavenly Father. When dealing with another person you find your first thought, “How does God want me to think about this person?” and your next thought is, “How would I want to be thought of by this person?” When your mind is filled with God’s Word and your heart is filled with His Spirit He will transform and renew your mind so it is easier for you to think like God thinks in regard to other people.


So what?


So, when you actually love your neighbor the way God loves you and in the way you want to be loved that is evidence that’s God’s love is operating in and through you!


That is evidence of a love that is true flowing through your soul to the love another’s soul.


That’s what!