Some people think of love as a wonderful feeling-a sensation of excitement or gushy emotions that make us feel warm and fuzzy all over. While love certainly has its wonderful feelings and powerful emotions, it’s so much more than that. Real love has little to do with gooey emotions and goose bumps; and it has everything to do with the choices we make about the way we treat people. Real love is not theory or talk; it is action. It is a decision concerning the way we behave in our relationships with other people. Real love meets needs even when sacrifice is required in order to do so. The Bible makes this point in 1 John 3:18: “Let us not love [merely] in theory or in speech but in deed and in truth (in practice and in sincerity).” Clearly, love moves us to take action—not just to theorize or talk.
I am amazed when I think about how often we know the right thing to do, but never get around to doing it. The apostle James said that if we hear the Word of God and don’t do it, we deceive ourselves with reasoning that does not agree with the truth (see James 1:21, 22). In other words, we know what is right but we make an excuse for ourselves. We find reason to exempt ourselves from doing what we would tell others that they ought to do. If we really want to walk in love, we will do what is right.
For quite some time, I have been challenging people around the world with the challenge I want to present to you today: would you make a commitment before God and sincerely in your heart to do at least one thing for somebody else every day? It may sound simple, but to do it, you will have to think about it and choose to do it on purpose. You may even have to move beyond the normal group of people in your life and do things for people you would not normally reach out to or even strangers. That’s okay, though, because there are so many people in the world who have never, ever had anyone do anything nice for them and they are desperate for some words or actions of love.
Let love be the main theme of your life and you will have a life worth living. The Bible says we know that we have passed over from death to life if we love one another (see 1 John 3:14). Remember: “where the mind goes, the man follows.” If you truly desire to excel in the love walk, you must first purpose to fill your mind with kind, loving, unselfish, and generous thoughts. This is an opportunity to practice the “on purpose” thinking principle we talked about in the first section of the book. It is impossible to change your behavior unless you change your mind. Start thinking loving, generous thoughts today and you’ll soon have a life full of love and happiness. Take a few minutes each morning and ask God to show you what you can do for somebody else that day. You can even choose a specific person and ask Him to show you what you can do for them. It will get your mind off of you and release new levels of joy in your life as well as be a great encouragement to the people you reach out to.
Think about It
What will you do to put love into action today?
