Actions Speak Louder Than Words

"This is how we know what love is:

Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.

And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him,

how can the love of God be in him?

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."

I John 3:16-18

I have been thinking a lot about this scripture this week in particular. We are shown how that God didn't just say, "I love you" or that we are suppose to say to someone, "well, I'll pray for you". That is the easy route to take and what most of us take as Americans. We don't want to think about doing without in order to help someone. I use to make excuses all the time for this scripture. My husband would teach on it and I would just think, "yeah, that's nice...". But now I am understanding it more and more. When Jesus died on the cross to show His love for us, He didn't die and say, "I'm only dying for the ones who are going to live perfect and meet my expectations". He didn't say, "I love you" but not show action on His part. When you have a relationship with your child or spouse you tend to not only say that you love them, but you do things for them. You don't have restrictions on when you will love them either. You don't say, "well, I will love you and have a relationship with you ONLY if you are perfect and do what I want you to do".

We have a homeless ministry and one of the things that has spoken volumes to them is that we are there for them and showing them with our actions on a daily basis our love for them. Even when they mess up and do things they know we would disapprove of, they know we love them anyway and will help them out. Most of them have never experienced this kind of love because of their childhood of abuse or whatever. This type of love is foreign to them and they want to know why and how we could love them like this.

As Americans we have lost this love for one another in most cases (not all). There are so many instances where we really don't show our love. Examples of this would include:

1) Divorce. Divorce is the easy route for many. If we would all meet each others needs spiritually, emotionally, and physically then we wouldn't have quite so many shattered families. Love in action. If you haven't seen the movie "Fireproof", this is a prime example of love in action and what I am talking about.

2) Struggling people within your church family. How often do we all meet together and we hear about someone struggling financially within your church family and we just say, "I'll pray for you. Hope things get better. Chin up! Remember the scripture about count it all joy when you go through trials and rejoice in the Lord always! Love ya! See ya next week!" Have you ever actually at least thought of selling your possessions or going without that next hair and nail appointment or not going to the coffee shop or something where you REALLY sacrifice for meeting your brother or sister in Christs need? Wow! That hurts. That is something that is truly a struggle we have.

3) Hurting people. There are so many times that we only allow people to be our friends or a part of our life if they meet our expectations and do what you want them to do. If they don't....then we don't want to have any part of them. That ends the relationship right there. Why are we so easily prone to hurting one another, but we don't lift each other up? Why do they have to be perfect in order to be in your life? Thank goodness God doesn't do that. I am so thankful that when I mess up, He is there ready to pull me back up, wipe the dirt off of me and give me another chance. God is perfect, we are not. If anyone is going to say that you have to be perfect and meet my expectations in order to have a relationship, shouldn't it be God? Who do we think we are to do that to each other? Lets show the action of being there for one another, helping each other through the tough times, and ALWAYS being there no matter what.

If we could all really grasp and allow God to work in our lives of showing love in action, just think of how we could turn this country around. We don't just need to get prayer back in our schools, change the government, or get a bigger attendance in our church buildings, we need to show love. We would turn this country upside down if we would really be the church and what God intended us to be. It would be AWESOME! Will you commit today to growing toward these things with me?