Christians in western cultures don’t fully understand sacrificial love, we know how to love conveniently.
Ask yourself this: Am I loving conveniently or sacrificially? What does loving someone cost me?
Even if we can relate to each other in our various brands of suffering, we may still fail to love each other sacrificially. We get caught up in our own lives, our own circumstances and we’re preoccupied with self protection. Maybe sometimes we just don’t know what needs exist. Maybe we do know but we feel incapable of making a difference. Maybe we think we’re trying our best and because we are finite, flawed people, we aren’t loving as well as we could.
How can we become better at loving in more Christlike ways? How do we change that?
I don’t know all the answers. It’s not cut and dried. I do know what would have helped me and what others who have been in similar situations agree would be helpful. Here’s 4 things that I believe would help bring us to a place of loving more sacrificially:
1. Simply be AWARE and acknowledge hurts and heartaches and the pain of others
2. SAY YES to meeting needs- even if it’s inconvenient or cumbersome or you feel like you aren’t qualified. (God has a habit of using improbable people for seemingly impossible tasks.)
3. ACT when the Holy Spirit prompts you love in tangible ways
4. Speak, don’t stay silent with encouragement and love
This world is a heavy, broken, daunting place to live. But we are called not to merely ‘love’ but to love like Christ. His love wasn’t convenient or easy. It was self sacrificing, difficult, and costly.
It might be time consuming, painful, wearing, to love those who need it most. But it will always be worth it.
#LoveSacrificesSelf
#splintersofHope
#splintersofLove
Steffani Platt 