One of the strongest revelations that I have ever received since coming to know Christ is the realisation of His love towards humanity.
How Jesus loves me, and it doesn’t matter who I am or what I may have done, He loves me, and because of this love, I have learnt to love.
In the Bible, ‘love’ has been described, discussed and demonstrated extensively. Personally, I find the illustration in 1 John 3:16-18 the most meaningful and applicable. It says, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”
I simply cannot think of a better example than the example Jesus has provided. His decision to “lay down his own life for us”, from another perspective, means He has deliberately chosen to abandon His comfortable way of living to an intentional way of sacrificing. My attempt to understand the width and the depth of His love has changed me and how I want to live my life.
With minimal understanding of the aforementioned verses, I have observed that His love and compassion are not expressed through words and speech alone but with actions. In fact, during His last supper, Jesus evidently demonstrates this to His disciples AND to us how we, as followers of Christ, ought to love.
In John 13, Jesus washes his disciples’ feet and says: “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.”
For others to ‘know’ Christ, not mind knowledge but a heartfelt revelation of His love, I strongly believe it must be shown through our actions. Hence, I’ve made the decision to live with intention, to love with action, to serve like Jesus.
To Serve with God-Given Gifts
I did not start off with doing much instead I made small intentional changes as my first step. I decided that I would smile more often, and I would make the effort to smile at anyone I came across. As I dedicated my life to building this habit, I felt my heart growing bigger and I had a stronger desire to grab hold of the opportunities to serve Him. I wanted to do more, so I started serving with the Children’s Ministry at my church. As I built His house, He opened my eyes to the different talents and gifts He had deposited into my life. One of which was the talent of public speaking.
Furthermore, He planned for me to study public health and law where I could integrate the acquired knowledge from school, with His deposited compassion for those who need to hear about His love.
Two year ago, when I visited Myanmar for a mission trip, I encountered a situation where an eleven-year-old boy walked into our clinic with a humped back. Many of our doctors approached him and tried to investigate the aetiology of the hump. However, the lack of diagnostic instruments at our clinic hindered our ability to further provide for his medical condition. Yet, as the few of us surrounded him with an eagerness to help, he seemingly grew anxious and uncomfortable. His face drowned in fear. So instead of figuring what the problem was, we decided to simply pray for him. Personally, I was not a clinician nor could I speak Burmese, but I saw and experienced how my decision to smile at him with the love of Christ somewhat successfully settled his unease.
We all have different talents, gifts and callings but we are all appointed to fulfil one purpose and that is to spread the love in which Jesus has acted upon that cross. We cannot expect others to feel the love of Christ when we do not show them what that means. Love in action can be as simple as a smile and I stand to challenge everyone one of you reading this blog to spread the love of Christ through your personal gifts.
You can connect with ADA on IG HERE and HERE
Purchase your HOPE TEE and support the work of FEED THE HUNGRY and A21 here