Broken-Down House
It means not keeping yourself so busy with you and yours that you have no practical time to love others. It means being committed to knowing people, because you can minister only in very limited ways to those whom you do not know. It means being willing to have your life complicated by the needs and struggles of others. It means being willing to share your physical resources with others. It means being willing to live with an open home. It means being perseverant and patient even when the love you give is not returned. It means actively looking for places where you can function as one of God’s tools of love. It means resisting the temptation to be judgmental, self- righteous, and critical. It means overlooking minor offenses and fighting the temptation to become bitter or cynical. It means making life decisions out of a recognition of this inescapable call to love. It means being lovingly and humbly honest in moments of misunderstanding; more committed to reconciliation than to being right. It means admitting that you are still learning to love as you have been loved. It means being willing to own up to your sin and admit your faults. It means not judging the success of your life by the size of your house or bank account, or by the quality of your car, but by the quality of your love for God and others. It means regularly examining the motivations, desires, and thoughts of your heart in the mirror of God’s Word. It means moving beyond simply surrounding yourself with people whom you find comfortable and likeable. It means being a student of God’s Word, a joyful participant in the means of grace, and a committed participant in the fellowship of the body of Christ, so that the love you offer others may be increasingly pure and mature.
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