"Heart Health"
When we think of February, we often think of hearts and valentines, of love and romance. And sometimes, we can get caught up in the moment, rather than the truth.
Do we really know our own hearts? Do we understand what love is?
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 describes what love is, telling us that without love we have nothing, and without love we can do nothing. Love comes from God. We are able to love God and love others because God first loved us.
Have you ever earnestly looked deep within your own heart? Is it a heart of love? The prophet Isaiah once wrote, "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught" (Isaiah 29:13, NIV)
Have we fallen into the trap of legalism? Or are we willing to reach beyond what we have been taught? Are we willing to live into love, no matter the cost?
The Lord offers us freedom from human rules. "These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ." (Colossians 2:17, NIV)
We see what real love is in Christ reaching beyond the barriers of what is societies norm, of what human rules dictates. And we are called to do the same, to “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" and to "‘Love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:37 & 39 NIV)
Yet too often we fail to live into this, especially when we fail to see those who are different from us as our neighbors. Let us dare to reach out beyond the teachings of past doctrinal divides, beyond the rules which we may have been taught, to embrace all people as children of God. Jesus came to save everyone regardless of race, ethnicity, political alignment, religious views, and all other things that divide us as humanity. God reaches out to everyone with the offer of Salvation though Christ our Lord.
May we check our heart health and seek to live into the Word of God, to love - to truly love.
May God Bless and Keep You. May God Strengthen You and Guide You in all that you do. Amen.
When we think of February, we often think of hearts and valentines, of love and romance. And sometimes, we can get caught up in the moment, rather than the truth.
Do we really know our own hearts? Do we understand what love is?
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 describes what love is, telling us that without love we have nothing, and without love we can do nothing. Love comes from God. We are able to love God and love others because God first loved us.
Have you ever earnestly looked deep within your own heart? Is it a heart of love? The prophet Isaiah once wrote, "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught" (Isaiah 29:13, NIV)
Have we fallen into the trap of legalism? Or are we willing to reach beyond what we have been taught? Are we willing to live into love, no matter the cost?
The Lord offers us freedom from human rules. "These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ." (Colossians 2:17, NIV)
We see what real love is in Christ reaching beyond the barriers of what is societies norm, of what human rules dictates. And we are called to do the same, to “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" and to "‘Love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:37 & 39 NIV)
Yet too often we fail to live into this, especially when we fail to see those who are different from us as our neighbors. Let us dare to reach out beyond the teachings of past doctrinal divides, beyond the rules which we may have been taught, to embrace all people as children of God. Jesus came to save everyone regardless of race, ethnicity, political alignment, religious views, and all other things that divide us as humanity. God reaches out to everyone with the offer of Salvation though Christ our Lord.
May we check our heart health and seek to live into the Word of God, to love - to truly love.
May God Bless and Keep You. May God Strengthen You and Guide You in all that you do. Amen.
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