Jesus glasses

"So he answered and said, ' "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind," and "your neighbor as yourself." ' And He said to him, 'You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.' " (Luke 10:27-28 NKJV)

In Matthew 9:35 Jesus has compassion on the people because they were "harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd." In the parable of the Good Samaritan it says that the Samaritan had compassion on the man on the side of the road. In both of these instances compassion is what made the difference, compassion moved both of these men to act upon what they had seen. In my last blog entry I wrote about 4 steps that will help you see change - see, feel, think, do (thank you, Andrew Gard). We know that without love everything is meaningless. You can be the wisest person in the world and still fall short without love. Out of love stems compassion, or maybe it's the other way around. The two ideas are closely related, you will have one if you have the other.

How can you and I show compassion more often, and love more ferociously?

I believe the best way to learn how to love people is to learn what love actually is, then to study how Jesus lived and loved. If you don't know what love is, it will be difficult to carry it out. Jesus said that "love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." (I Cor 13:4-7 NKJV)

If you have read that passage before I want you to go back and read it again. And go slowly this time, really let each attribute of love sink in...

Isn't that a little overwhelming at first? I know I thought so. So if love is all those things, how are we supposed to accomplish that? We're supposed to love God and people that way. On top of that, we're supposed to love God with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind. What's the difference between loving God with your heart, with your soul, with your strength, and with your mind? I believe heart is in regards to our feelings and emotions. We need to love him like we would love a Father, king, and friend. Our strength refers to our physical bodies; we need to take care of ourselves because our bodies are holy temples unto the Lord. Loving God with our mind is perhaps the least emphasized part of this verse. God has given us a powerful mind and we need to take full advantage of it. That means studying the Word, learning about new things, pushing our mind to its limit.

Here are a few things to remember when thinking about how you can love others more.
1. True, godly love is unconditional. You treat everyone the same, no matter if you know them or you're complete strangers. If someone is rude to you, you still love them. If someone cuts you off on the freeway, you still show love. If your brother or sister tells on you, you still treat them with kindness and respect.
2. True, godly love puts others first. Their problems and desire are more important than yours.
3. True love always forgives. No matter how much it hurts or how much you've been hurt, you forgive.

Now that we've talked about how to love people, how can we be more compassionate? It's hard to love people when you don't really care about what they are going through. We need to look at people through Jesus' eyes. What moved Jesus to have compassion? He said they were harassed and helpless. Jesus knew what it meant to be harassed, he was harassed by the devil himself. He put himself in their shoes. That is the key to having compassion - putting yourself in the center of someone else's life. What would it be like to be them? How would you feel? Would you want someone to care about you enough to encourage you, help you, listen to you?

This blog entry is full of challenges, so I won't give you another one, but I would encourage you to try implementing a couple of these things into your life today. Try to show an act of love or compassion that is out of the norm for you. The only way we grow is when we're put under pressure. We're "refined by the fire," so to speak. But don't forget that loving God is the most important commandment. Nothing should come before God in our lives.

Faith.Hope.Love.
Chelsea Rae