Love Is A Choice….

God’s love for humanity is so great. It’s so great we often confuse its depth trying to grasp it with our finite minds. The best way to understand is to keep it simple. Love is a choice; you either choose to love or choose not to love. Either way those that truly love give the recipient of their love the choice to love them back. God does this for us all. If you read the “love chapter”, 1Cor 13, you’ll discover one of the attributes of love is that it doesn’t demand its own way. Think about that for a second. Love is selfless, not selfish. If I asked you what the opposite of love was, you’d probably say hate. Wrong!!! The opposite of love is selfishness. That is why true love doesn’t demand its own way, that would be the opposite of love. So what do you do when love isn’t reciprocated back to you. You hurt inside. But you trust God in that the relationship you think is best really isn’t. When it comes to God, He always gives us a choice. You can choose to serve Him and live a life centered around His ways. Or you can choose not to follow Him, and be centered around your own ways. He gives that choice to everyone. But your choice has consequences. Here in Luke chapter 9, Jesus sends out the twelve disciples in order to tell the towns about the Kingdom of God. If the towns welcomed them, they would stay and share the “Good News” with them. If they weren’t welcomed, they would shake the dust off their sandals as a sign, that they rejected God’s love for them and were left to their own demise. This situation hasn’t changed, it’s still true to this day. Whenever you speak truth into someone’s life and they are receptive, they will benefit greatly. But when you speak truth and it is rejected, you should respectfully move on. There’s no sense in trying to show valuable pearls to pigs, they just won’t get it. Love is a choice. And God gives all of us that choice. So today, choose Whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

1 One day Jesus called together His twelve disciples and gave them power and authority to cast out all demons and to heal all diseases. 2 Then He sent them out to tell everyone about the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 3 “Take nothing for your journey,” He instructed them. “Don’t take a walking stick, a traveler’s bag, food, money, or even a change of clothes.4 Wherever you go, stay in the same house until you leave town.5 And if a town refuses to welcome you, shake its dust from your feet as you leave to show that you have abandoned those people to their fate.”6 So they began their circuit of the villages, preaching the Good News and healing the sick. Luke 9:1-6