Helen Keller said, “The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard but must be felt in the heart.” Helen Keller could not hear or see, which makes that an even more profound and beautiful statement.
We can live our lives every day, but if you and I don’t have a passionate heart for Christ, we can give up and miss the mark. As Christians, we know that our calling is to love people and use things. In today’s world that goes against the flow and is considered “counter culture.”
The Book of Acts is the story of the first church made up of Jewish believers. They had given their lives to Christ in a culture that in many ways was similar to the one we live in today. Acts 2:42-45 says:
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.
These believers got together in Jerusalem and they brought all of their stuff and shared everything with one another. What would happen if followers of Christ made intentional decisions to love people above all else? What if our love for God grew into a passion and perspective that the things that we have are only instruments to be used to reach people for Christ? In reality, our goal would be to give love away—to demonstrate the love of God to others by using the things God blessed us with to reach them at their point of need.
Honestly, as I am thinking about this, I am convicted because of all the stuff that I have. Think about all your stuff – what you collect, the things that are important to you. I asked myself, How can I use things and love people which led me to ask five questions that I believe you need to ask in order to give love away.
- Do I more highly value those who can help me in life than I do those that can’t help me at all?
- Think of a time when you gave up something of real value to you in order to meet the need of another person, and then ask the question, “Why did I do that?”
- What one descriptive word or phrase do you think would be most spoken about you at your funeral?
- Have you given more thought today to meeting the needs of other people or have you given more thought to the things that you’ve got to get done?
- How likely is it that you would spend money from your own pocket?
Everywhere Jesus went, He gave love away. Most of the lives He touched weren’t people that were going to add value to Him. It was all about what He could do for them.
My encouragement to you this month is to do ONE THING in the next 30 days that would exemplify your heart’s attitude to love people and use things. Choose to give love away. I believe it would really bring pleasure to Christ in your life.
