Do you love? I mean, really love? There are several groups and churches that practice various forms of Advent traditions. One of them is lighting 5 different candles to represent 5 different topics. Today we light the 4th candle, which represents love.
So many of us will say we love. We will say “I love you” to our loved ones. We will say “I love that” concerning a food or clothing item or vehicle or decoration or any number of things. But the question comes back to me, “do you really love?”
Love puts others needs and wants ahead of your own. Love forgives. Love is action, not just words. Having the love of God in you is a joy and is unconditional. You don’t have to earn it, but you do have to accept it. You must open your heart to it for it to have its full effect. You see, we have a choice. We can choose to accept God’s love and worship Him for that, receiving untold blessings. Or we can choose to chase after this world with a hardened heart, having no or very little joy, continuing to feel empty in a crowded world.
So, do you really love? Do you feel loved? If your answer is no or you are not sure or you only feel that way sometimes, you might consider committing more of your time to God. You may think you will miss out on what’s happening around you and you may be right. But you will gain so much more than the temporary gratification of knowing what’s happening in the latest TV show or who is dating who or what the latest sale is or when an actor is getting married or any number of other things that won’t matter a few days, weeks, or years down the road.
I pray each of us will commit more time to God during this season and each of us is filled with His love, then show it to everyone around us. God knows this world needs love. Do you? Will you be the one to show it?
John 15:9-17 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.”
Marty Pressey 