Monday, February 28, 2011

Walking In Love - What's In It For Me?

The subject of the love of God is something that is very important; love is mentioned in every letter in the New Testament. Even the small books of Philemon, 2 John, 3 John, and Jude all mention love. Walking in love is one of those things that we don't always hear that much about but living a life motivated by the love of God that is in us is a vital part of a successful Christian life.

If we read through the New Testament and study all of the Bible verses about walking in love we will find that we all have some room for improvement. Typically we tend to be selfish and we think about how what we are doing will benefit us. We might even ask the question, "What's in it for me?" as we consider doing something. The thing is that if we are going to walk in love, instead of wondering what we are going to get out of a situation we should be wondering what we could contribute to the situation and what it is that we have to give instead of what we could get.

Our goal should be to do what we can to help others and not to see what others can do for us; even Jesus said that He did not come to be served but rather to serve others (Mark 10:45). Love does not insist on its own rights or its own way, love always builds up and edifies; this is what Jesus did and we should do the same. When we go into a situation only thinking about how we can benefit we will miss opportunities to help others and we will fall short of the plan of God for our lives.

Too often we only focus on getting what we want and we don't even consider others and their needs. Instead of always asking the question, "What's in it for me?" we would be a lot better off if we would always ask ourselves the question, "What can I do to help and benefit that person and how can I help in this situation?" By doing this we will walk in love and be a greater blessing to the people around us.