Any amount of time spent with Howard and I and you will hear us say “It’s all about Relationships” or it all comes down to relationships. Jesus was relational and summed up life with this: Love God and Love People!
We spend a lot of time doing many things in our life and most of them do not have any type of return or benefit to our life. Sure, we must work to make money to pay the bills but what is our bigger purpose in life? What are we doing here?
Jesus tells us we are here to love others.
Jesus tells us we are here to tell others about God.
Jesus tells us we are to serve others as He did.
God wants us to love and care for others so much we want to be invested in their lives, put their needs before our own and help them develop a closer relationship with God and others. God is using us to bring others to a knowledge and love of Jesus Christ! That is pretty cool and at the same time completely overwhelming. Our single pursuit in work, friends, family, church, school is to love God and love others. I know most days I don’t feel up to the task!
Our third candle of Advent we light in our family is Love. This candle reminds us that God is Love. God’s love for us is something we truly cannot completely and totally grasp this side of heaven. God did not just tell us he loved us with an amazing love. He showed us!
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. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
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. 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.
I John 4:7-10 (NLT)
God sent Jesus to the Earth to live as we do and show us in a very tangible way what love is. God sent his son down to us knowing how he would be received on Earth. The hardships he would face and ultimately murder on a cross yet he sent Him anyways! God had a plan and it was all about His love for us and His desire for all of us to spend eternity with Him.
Truly Jesus is the best Christmas present for us. He comes to love us and redeem us to Himself. Each year during this time of Advent we are encouraged to remember the meaning behind why Jesus came. The actions of God remind us that we are to be a set apart people. We are set apart by our love. How we treat others distinguishes us as Jesus people. Do we love others well?
I love Jesus! Love is more than admiring Jesus or obeying Jesus. Love is more than wanting his approval or appreciating his teachings. Love is the essence of who we are. Our Creator, God, is love and made us to love so it is in our genes so to speak to love God and love others.
Advent is a time to prepare for the celebration of baby Jesus. It is easy to love a baby. Once we have celebrated Christmas and this baby in a manager it is truthfully as close to Jesus as some people want to get. The adult Jesus is too intense, too controversial, too demanding. However, if we don’t get to know the adult Jesus and keep him at arms length then we don’t really understand who Jesus is and will never love Jesus. Jesus is real and loves us deeply and desires for us to love him back!
Do you love Jesus? We don’t love perfectly this side of heaven, but do we love Him consistently? Lovers of Jesus follow him, trust him and obey him. We reflect the love of Jesus in our life. Jesus calls us to follow him and take our love for him wherever we go whether it be the workplace, school or church. Are we loving the people we come across each day as we follow Him? Do we trust our life to Jesus because of our love for Him? We may not understand or have a clear picture but do we love Jesus enough to know He is in control and will handle things. We often say in our house “God’s got this!” Truly God does have it, but do we trust that He does? Do we obey the teachings and commands of God? We show love by respecting the rules laid forth for us to obey. Do we obey God or pick and choose how we will obey? These are the things the adult Jesus calls us to do: Follow, Trust, Obey.
Let’s celebrate the birth of Jesus this Christmas and thank God for sending His son to earth to save us from our sins. Praise God for a Savior. Praise God for a way to come to a close relationship with Him and a path to eternity. I caution you to not stop short of just celebrating and praising Jesus and then go back to your life come January. I challenge you to seek to follow, trust and obey Jesus and love him with all your heart, soul and mind. Deepen your love and understanding of Jesus this year and don’t just celebrate His birthday!
How can we deepen our understanding and love of Jesus?
How can we love God and others today?