Something that I have learned in my daily walk with God is His unconditional love without reproach towards people. If we carefully study and observe the life of Jesus through the gospels we would find a peculiar pattern in His actions. Keep in mind that God is love and Jesus is love. LOVE STOPS, LOOKS, LISTEN, and then TAKES ACTION. One day Jesus is on his way to the city of Naim and suddenlt stopped. Calmly He looked around and saw a funeral procession passing by. He observed the pain of a mother whose son had departed too early, too young . He listened to her thoughts, her crying, her expressions of grief and pain. He approached the scene closely to give a new opportunity of life to the boy. Over and over we see the same pattern in the life of Jesus and how His love operated. Love stops, looks and carefully observe and assess the situation and the person who needs help, listens, and then does something about it.
On another ocassion Jesus was on His way to Jairus' house to raise the man's daughter from a lethal sickness. At the most inconvenient moment for Jairus, a woman suffering from unstoppable hemorrages crawled and touched Jesus' clothes. This stopped the Teacher on His tracks. He turned around to look his surroundings and ask who had just touched Him. The woman told Him all her story of how she suffered for the last 12 years, and all the doctors she visited, and all the treatments received, and how she was financially broke from all the medical bills. In all this Jesus actively listened to her. I imagine Jairus' patience was depleted already by the time they came to break the news that his daughter just passed away and he should not bothe more the Master. However, Jesus' honored the inconvenience caused by this delay through the merciful act of Jairus of being willing to wait a little longer even though this might have cost him his daughter's life. Had this been in this present age, perhaps someone from Orlando, probably could have done this approach to Jesus: "I'm sorry Lord, but I was here first, remember? Lady, do you mind to please take a number and wait for your turn? Come on, Jesus, follow me, come on, this way, okay?!"
Sometimes we ask God to use us. But then we tell Him like Felix said to Paul: "Let's just leave things as they are right now, and I will call you when its a more convenient time". Really? We pray God to work through us and what we could do for Him that day and then we just move on with our little agenda. Later throughout the day we pass by a homeless person and opt to keep walking our way. Why? Because the love of God compels us to do something about it. We think that we are not accountable for what we decide not to look at. Helping someone implies that we may have to interrupt our inflexible schedule or may need to invest some hard earned money in supplying that person's need or pain when we were saving the money for something we wanted that perhaps is not as necessary as we thought it was. We drive in our cars and we see a person getting soaking wet under the heavy rain and we ask ourselves: "what's wrong with that guy? Why he doesn't get something to cover himself?" All of a sudden you see two umbrellas, next to you, lying in your vehicle and you realize that you haven't used them in months...but it is very inconvenient for you to flow with the love of God because this would mean that you will have to do aa U-turn, and because of the traffic and pouring rain it will cause you to arrive late to your doctor's appointment. Preferring to keep your appointment and make it on time, you arrive to the doctors office unly to hear them apologizing that the doctor would be arriving one hour later due to an unexpected complication. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!" Now you remember that had you decided to stop, look, and listen to flow with what the love of God asked you to do with that umbrella in your car, you would have become God's love expression towards that person and still make it on time to your appointment.
The Bible says in 1 John 3:17-18: "But if anyone has this world's goods (resources for sustaining life) and sees his brother and fellow believer in need, yet closes his heart of compassion against him, how can the love of God live and remain in him? Little children, let us not love {merely} in theory or in speech but in deed and in truth (in practice and in sincerity)". (Amplified Version)
When God let us know that it is our time to move in love towards the next level in our journey with Him, we should never respond: "This is not a good time, is not convenient for me now, in fact it is an inconvenience for me Lord!" God always know what is best and His timing is always right. And you know what? In my experience God frequently interrupts my agenda by nudging me with his love towards someone who no one has stop to look and listen at yet. Could He interrupt yours?
The next time God asks you to do something for someone or you feel that special love flowing in you like to call someone you haven't thought of in years, yield to it instead of saying you don't have the time. You won't regret it! Don't forget that His timing is always perfect!
On another ocassion Jesus was on His way to Jairus' house to raise the man's daughter from a lethal sickness. At the most inconvenient moment for Jairus, a woman suffering from unstoppable hemorrages crawled and touched Jesus' clothes. This stopped the Teacher on His tracks. He turned around to look his surroundings and ask who had just touched Him. The woman told Him all her story of how she suffered for the last 12 years, and all the doctors she visited, and all the treatments received, and how she was financially broke from all the medical bills. In all this Jesus actively listened to her. I imagine Jairus' patience was depleted already by the time they came to break the news that his daughter just passed away and he should not bothe more the Master. However, Jesus' honored the inconvenience caused by this delay through the merciful act of Jairus of being willing to wait a little longer even though this might have cost him his daughter's life. Had this been in this present age, perhaps someone from Orlando, probably could have done this approach to Jesus: "I'm sorry Lord, but I was here first, remember? Lady, do you mind to please take a number and wait for your turn? Come on, Jesus, follow me, come on, this way, okay?!"
Sometimes we ask God to use us. But then we tell Him like Felix said to Paul: "Let's just leave things as they are right now, and I will call you when its a more convenient time". Really? We pray God to work through us and what we could do for Him that day and then we just move on with our little agenda. Later throughout the day we pass by a homeless person and opt to keep walking our way. Why? Because the love of God compels us to do something about it. We think that we are not accountable for what we decide not to look at. Helping someone implies that we may have to interrupt our inflexible schedule or may need to invest some hard earned money in supplying that person's need or pain when we were saving the money for something we wanted that perhaps is not as necessary as we thought it was. We drive in our cars and we see a person getting soaking wet under the heavy rain and we ask ourselves: "what's wrong with that guy? Why he doesn't get something to cover himself?" All of a sudden you see two umbrellas, next to you, lying in your vehicle and you realize that you haven't used them in months...but it is very inconvenient for you to flow with the love of God because this would mean that you will have to do aa U-turn, and because of the traffic and pouring rain it will cause you to arrive late to your doctor's appointment. Preferring to keep your appointment and make it on time, you arrive to the doctors office unly to hear them apologizing that the doctor would be arriving one hour later due to an unexpected complication. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!" Now you remember that had you decided to stop, look, and listen to flow with what the love of God asked you to do with that umbrella in your car, you would have become God's love expression towards that person and still make it on time to your appointment.
The Bible says in 1 John 3:17-18: "But if anyone has this world's goods (resources for sustaining life) and sees his brother and fellow believer in need, yet closes his heart of compassion against him, how can the love of God live and remain in him? Little children, let us not love {merely} in theory or in speech but in deed and in truth (in practice and in sincerity)". (Amplified Version)
When God let us know that it is our time to move in love towards the next level in our journey with Him, we should never respond: "This is not a good time, is not convenient for me now, in fact it is an inconvenience for me Lord!" God always know what is best and His timing is always right. And you know what? In my experience God frequently interrupts my agenda by nudging me with his love towards someone who no one has stop to look and listen at yet. Could He interrupt yours?
The next time God asks you to do something for someone or you feel that special love flowing in you like to call someone you haven't thought of in years, yield to it instead of saying you don't have the time. You won't regret it! Don't forget that His timing is always perfect!