Love God. Love People.

Love God. Love People.

The theme of The Greatest Commandment seems to keep popping up everywhere I turn. “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matt 22:37)

So then you break it up into three areas with which we love: mind, heart, soul. Mind is easy. You make a conscious decision. Heart is more difficult. It is usually pretty easy to love God because he is good and loving and forgiving. But when I think about loving other people with all my heart, I’m much more challenged. Even unwilling at times. And what about with all my soul? That’s it. He has taken everything. What is left of me if I have surrendered my heart, my soul AND my mind to loving God and people? That’s the point. So... I’m surrendering myself. I’m going to forgive people who have insulted me because God forgives me even when I insult Him. I take advantage of His love and patience. I ignore Him. I insult Him in all kinds of ways and He forgives me. So I can forgive, too. I can love people as if they were a part of me. God sent His perfect son to die for us while we were still sinners, while we were still insulting Him. I can’t imagine that kind of compassion and love. But it lives in me. J

As a side note, I’ve been sick for about the last week with a chest infection (bronchitis). I was really frustrated because I am always getting sick!! I was asking God, “WHY do you allow me to get sick all the time? How can I possibly serve You when I’m always in bed trying to recover from an illness???” One answer is that sometimes I let my schedule get so busy that I don’t take time for God until He takes me away from all the distractions. When I’m bored to tears in my room, I remember that this is actually precious time I could spend with Him. I don’t remember the last time I’d had 30 minutes of silence until I got sick. Another answer is to teach me reliance. I can’t do anything on my own, no matter how hard I try. But I can do ANYTHING that God asks me to do, as long as He gives me the strength. I was reading Hudson Taylor’s biography on one particularly gloomy day. It was cloudy outside and I was feeling sick and so very sorry for myself. Interestingly enough, when he was young, Hudson Taylor wasn’t even able to go to school regularly because of his “continued delicacy”. He would miss a day or two A WEEK because of illness. And God was able to use him in absolutely amazing ways. So who am I to question why God lets me get sick sometimes?

So praise God for taking me away from my distractions and giving me some much needed time for rest, reflection, and renewal. Those all started with an R. haha. That’s all I’ve got for now. Thanks!