Then things change. So many times I’ve struggled through the week with bad attitudes trying to make myself show love to others and be kind to the people around me. I find it challenging, requiring much effort, but yet unsuccessful. Yet the moment I am reconciled unto God I find it so easy to love any and everyone. I no longer have to look at a prayer list to be reminded of who has needs, because they are on my heart and mind out of a true concern. I have found 1 John 4:7-8 to be so true! “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.” I have heard preachers say that they didn’t know how to love until they became a Christian and I use to wonder at such a saying. Now I understand. I can’t truly love someone in a selfless Christ honoring way unless God’s love is present in my life and my love for him is real. Any love apart from this must be a selfish or shallow love, nothing like the love God has toward us and the love that he places in our heart. I firmly believe living life without this love isn’t really living at all!
