Caring For Others

I find myself asking the question; what does it look like for my heart to genuinely care for others?

1 John 3:11 says, "We should love one another"

Are you like me and have you ever asked the question; what does that look like? For them? For me?

As I read a little further in 1 John 3:16-18 it then says, "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 and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth."

I am often stirred by the words to the song "Hosanna" by Hillsong. The entire song touches something in the depth of my being, however it's the words in the bridge which challenge me and stir me the most.

"Heal my heart and make it clean

Open up my eyes to the things unseen

Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart for what break yours

Everything I am for your kingdom's cause

As I walk from earth into eternity"

What if I earnestly prayed this and what if God answered the longing of my heart?

You see, I know people are valuable to God and they really matter to Him - He sent His son Jesus to earth to take their sin upon Himself and died on a cross so we could have access to our Holy God. Yet I often find myself wrestling with the question, do people really matter to me? Why is it so easy to walk past the individual on the street asking for a handout? Why do I take a different route home so not to drive through a "questionable" area of the city? Why do I want to avoid the mess in someone else's life while longing for someone to help me with mine?

I really do want the Lord to show me how to love like He does. I want my heart to break for what breaks His. And I do want to walk from this earth into His eternity without missing a step.

So I continue on this journey towards caring about others, not in theory, but in reality; and finding ways to communicate it to them so they receive it well.

"Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth." 1 John 3:18

Jo-Ann