With Every Act of Love

A song that reminds me that we are called by God to show others his love for us. We are truly the doors that he has put on this earth for his love to work through. If those who claim to be Christians (followers of Christ) do not show his love, then who will? It's so much easier to just close our eyes and act like nothing's wrong. Or to just say that 'there's nothing I can do' and forget about it. But I know I do not want to appear before God and hear him say "Depart from me... For I was an hungered and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger and ye took me not in: naked and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not." Matthew 25:41-43

I'm an extremely shy and introverted individual, so I was baffled as to how I could and would go about showing God's love to strangers, and being the kind of person he wants and needs me to be. But as with so much else in my Christian walk, I realized that if I just allowed God to lead me through the power of his Holy Spirit, then I would do just want he wants from me. The Holy Spirit can never lead you wrong. And God is so wiling to impart the Holy Spirit to us. All we have to do is sincerely seek him and ask.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can truly be doors through which the love of God can walk.

Faith

As children bring their broken toys,
With tears for us to mend,
I brought my broken dreams to God,
Because he was my friend.

But then, instead of leaving Him
In peace to work alone,
I stayed around and tried to help
Through ways that were my own.

At last, I snatched them back and cried,
"How can you be so slow?"
"My child," He said, "What could I do?
You never did let go.*

From 95 These on Righteousness by Faith, Morris Venden.

Faith = Trust

I'm reading a book called 95 Theses on Righteousness by Faith by Morris Venden. And although I find myself not agreeing completely with everything he says in the book, there is a lot of glaring truth in there that has made me wake up and question the way I live my life and my relationship with God. One of the things he talks about is faith, and that faith is really trust in God.

Do we really trust God as we should? Obviously the only way we can trust Him is if we know Him, and we know Him the same way we get to know our friends and acquaintances - we build  relationships by spending quality time with people; talking with them, communicating. That's how it is with God. And just like it takes time to trust people, the more we know, the more we are able to trust.

Something I've learned though: A relationship with God is not instant. It takes time and it takes honest work and commitment on our parts. Revelation 3:20 says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come into him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Jesus is always there, always knocking. It is up to us to open for him. But we have to keep him inside once we've opened that door. We need to spend time with him daily; by praying and by reading his word - the Bible.

Jesus himself was the example of this when he was on earth. He spent time daily with his father in prayer. He is our perfect example, following him, we cannot go wrong.

I must admit that I find it difficult to follow this advice. I get distracted by worldly things all the time, and I always think, "what's one day not reading my Bible?" Well, it's a lot. Ellen White says in Messages to Young People that just one time is all it takes to make the second, third and fourth time easier. So spending one day without communing with God makes it easier to go another day, and another, until you're completely disconnected from him.

It goes both ways though - the more time you spend with Him, the more time you want to spend with Him. Because Jesus is truly wonderful.