Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. —Colossians 3:12-14

If we believe God loves us, truly loves us, then are we not full of His love?  If we are full of His love, then can we share that love with others?  Jesus summed up all the law with two commandments:  How we are to love God and how we are to love ourselves and our neighbors.  Would you agree with me that at the heart of all scripture is love.  God is love.  We are made in His image and likeness and once we accept His Son as Lord and Savior, we are His sons and daughters, therefore we are love.  Pride, arrogance, competition, selfishness can mask and distort our love.  When we submit ourselves and our worldly desires to God, then we are no longer bound by this world.  We are released to rest in Him.

It is amazing when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, that Jesus began the prayer by saying Our Father.  God is not only Jesus’ Father but He is Our Father as well.  We can cry Abba, Daddy.  How marvelous it is to call out Daddy knowing how good He is and that He loves us to call Him.  Imagine the very being who created all that is seen from that which is unseen, is excited when we call Him, Abba.  There is no amount of houses, cars, clothes, money, drugs, or alcohol that can compare with communion with Our Father.

Bask in the light of His love.  Cherish every moment of splendor you can in His loving arms.  Remember Jesus stands knocking at the door of our heart.  Let Jesus enter into your heart.  Allow every fear, every concern, every distraction, every need, to fall to the ground because your Father in heaven knows every need you have and wants to provide.  In Psalm 23 it begins by saying that the Lord is my Shepard I shall not want.  The Bible tells us to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and these other things will be given.  Your Father is the prodigal’s father looking every day whether you will come to Him, and if you do, then your Father runs to meet you.  Even when we have sinned, Our Father is quick to forgive us because He is love.  Let us pray for His love to be so great in our lives that we naturally forgive those who have hurt us.  Let His love so reign in our hearts that we believe the best about people even when they have given us reason not to believe.  We seek God’s grace and in the same manner let us love so much that grace flows from us as honey flows from the honeycomb.

Let us pray the Father that our weary world worn eyes would be open to see the greatness of God’s creation especially His greatest creation, our fellow human beings.  We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, yet He still looks at us with love.  For God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten son, Jesus, to die on a cross so that we could be reconciled with the Father.  God gave His best.  In the Bible Jesus said do not live any longer with an eye for an eye, do not hate your enemies, but rather love your enemies, that God was working in us pure hearts.

This year freely give the love of the Father to everyone you encounter.  You may say this is foolish I will be hurt.  No what is foolish to hide your light from those around you.  What is foolish is to lose your saltiness.  You are salt and light.  Now put on love go out there and embrace not only those people easy to love, but also those people who are hard to love.