Jesus called us, “To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Mark 12:33 (NIV). It is His desire for us to love one another.
God cares for each one of us and knows every intimate detail of our life, “And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” Matt 10:30 (NIV).
Should we not desire to know more intimately those around us? Or has our life become too busy to care? Satan has masterly made life so filled with obligations and responsibilities that we have little energy to give love to others? It is important to take a close look at our life and see where our priorities lie. Sadly countless people have become absorbed in their own life and desires they have forgotten what God desires most from us, to love one another.
There are scores of people who are suffering in this world. Have we become immune to it? Are we like the priest and Levite who takes a casual glance at the hurting and then go on our way? Or we like the Samaritan who stops and offers help? (Luke 10:30-37) God’ calls us to reach out and touch those around us who are hurting and encourage them, to feed them and most of all to love them.
“As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” He said to another man, “Follow me.” But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.” Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:57-62 (NIV)
“A true story, Brenda Foltz was almost halfway to the top of the tremendous granite cliff. She was standing on a ledge where she was taking a breather during this, her first rock climb. As she rested there, the safety rope snapped against her eye and knocked out her contact lens. “Great”, she thought.
” Here I am on a rock ledge, hundreds of feet from the bottom and hundreds of feet to the top of this cliff, and now my sight is blurry.” She looked and looked, hoping that somehow it had landed on the ledge. But it just wasn’t there.
She felt the panic rising in her, so she began praying. She prayed for calm, and she prayed that she may find her contact lens. When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but it was not to be found. Although she was calm now that she was at the top, she was saddened because she could not clearly see across the range of mountains. She thought of the bible verse “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth.”
She thought, “Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and you know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me.”
Later, when they had hiked down the trail to the bottom of the cliff they met another party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, “Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?”
Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it? An ant was moving slowly across a twig on the face of the rock, carrying it!
The story doesn’t end there. Brenda’s father is a cartoonist. When she told him the incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a cartoon of an ant lugging that contact lens with the caption, “Lord, I don’t know why you want me to carry this thing. I can’t eat it, and it’s awfully heavy. But if this is what you want me to do; I’ll carry it for you.”
God has entrusted us to love one another. He would have us carry our neighbor’s burdens. This may not be convenient and at times we run the risk of being hurt. Yet I think it would do all of us some good to say, “God, this load is awfully heavy. But, if you want me to carry it, I will.”
“Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help. That way, God’s bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he’ll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!” 1 Peter 4:8-11 (MSG)
What does it mean to serve the Lord “with all your heart and all your soul”?
When has God called you to serve Him in ways that were unattractive or unpleasant to you? How did you respond?
What opportunities do you have to help others?
