Love is the Answer!

In Matthew 22:39 Jesus said, "...you shall love your neighbor as yourself." But how many people truly know how to love your neighbor? 1 John 3:18 says, "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." If we look at the things that God did for us, we can see He leads by example. John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." God gave, and this is how He loves us. So now we get an idea of how we are to love. The Bible says if you love God you show Him by keeping His commandments. The same applies in our relationships. For an example you can tell your wife you love her everyday and she likes to hear that, but what really drives it home is when you do things for her. Such as doing the laundry, doing the dishes, cooking for her, etc. This is how we are to love. So the same would apply to your neighbor. I believe what makes keeping this commandment so hard for some is that so many are being deceived by the world. And what I mean is a common position most have is, "I've worked too hard for what I have and am barely scraping by on my own, so how does He expect me to give to others?" Well if you look at what the Bible says about money, we are not suppose to borrow money. But our flesh says 'I can't wait' and the world says, 'I'll finance you." So we think this is great and we do that over and over till we have a payment on everything. And now we have become the tail and not the head. We are held in bondage to our debt and as a result the Lord can not use us to bless our neighbors. So the the worldly views have deceived us from thinking how God says we should handle money. Giving is not alone limited to materialistic things though. We can lend our neighbors a hand when they are in need of help physically, emotionally, and especially spiritually. However people nowadays are too busy to lend a hand to anyone because our schedules are too full of things not of the kingdom. This is another way the devil keeps us incapacitated or fit to serve the Lord. It is time for Christians to stop becoming more like the world and shift their thinking to the things of the kingdom of God. How many know that the Bible says, seek ye first the kingdom of God, yet how many actually live that way? Then we wonder why we have an abundance of strife in our lives. I dare to say that these two things are directly related to each other. My wife put it in a way that best explains the unexplainable. She said it like this, when you put the things of God first then all the rest seem to fall in place. This is the truth. God is way more qualified to handle our problems than we are, and He wants to handle them for us. But we need to shelf our pride, and let Him do it for us and quit trying to over power it ourselves. We can not do it alone. He is the answer to all our problems and the answer is in Him. Saints we need to stop looking to the Government and people for answers and start seeking Him first. The Messiah has already come and our faith is to be in Him and not anything or anybody else. When you trust in the Lord that pleases Him and you will see His favor in your life. When you don't know where the money is going to come from its there. When you don't know how to overcome the sickness your healed. When you have tried to talk to your teenager and bring him light and you're about to give up, the Lord turns his life around. All because you trust in Him our Savior. He is the wonderful councilor. He knows all things, so let's place our faith in Him, and let Him clean up our bank accounts, our schedules, and our lives. We can't afford to be deceived anymore. It's time for a break through who's with me. Pray right now with me, Lord I know that I need your help. And I know I haven't always put you first in my life, but I want to change that right here and right now. Show me where I need to change and I will change. Give me wisdom and guide my steps down the path which you have already prepared for me. Show me the grace which you have graced me with and I will place your purpose first in my life. For I know when I place you first you will take care of the rest. Show me how to love and use me as your vessel, and I will give you my all. Amen! Now if you believe that receive it and hold on to it. And be ready for some big things to happen in your life and expect good things to happen. God is love and God is good. And if you prayed with me and you believe that you will receive, He is right now this very second working on manifesting this to you. Let's be a light to the world and love our neighbors as ourselves praising God as we do! Glory be to God! Amen!

In Christ,

Eric R. Cox

Scripture to meditate on: 1 John 3:13-22 (New Living Translation)

13 So don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.
14 If we love our Christian brothers and sisters, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead. 15 Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them. 16 We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? 18 Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. 19 Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God. 20 Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. 22 And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.