Romans 12:9 (NLT)
Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them…
Have you taken a passive approach to loving people? As a culture, we are very quick to say all the right things without lifting a finger to actually address the issues people around us are facing. We hear about poor Aunt Lulu and how sick she is and how she needs our prayers and actually have the audacity to say we’ll "keep her in our prayers," which actually means we’ll pray for her later, if we think about it.
What if we stopped what we were doing and prayed for Aunt Lulu right then and there?! That is the kind of boldness that God calls us to!
We hear about Lego Louie’s house burning down and shake our heads, obviously distraught by the news… So distraught that hey, we’ll "keep them in our prayers…"
What if we went through our closets and gave Lego Louie some of our old (but new to him) clothes? What if we finally got rid of some of the furniture in our house and gave it to Louie? This is rejecting that passive approach to loving others and instead loving in an active way! Just like God has called us to!
We hear things like, “Keep the Flintstones, Fred and Wilma, in your prayers… They’re going through a really rough patch in their marriage.”
Instead of praying for this frustrated couple, we “gather information” (gossip) so we’ll know exactly what to pray for and then say we’ll "keep them in our prayers…"
Instead, we should stop what we’re doing and pray for Fred and Wilma right then and there! (Fred and Wilma Flintstone are fictional characters created by Hanna-Barbera Productions… You should look them up sometime… I would say that their marriage is almost always on the rocks… Ha… Haha... See what I did there? Anyways…)
I hope you get my point! Don’t take a passive approach to loving others! If there’s a need, do what you can to meet it! If someone needs prayer, stop what you’re doing and pray for them!
Then pray for them later like you said you would!
Let’s start really loving others!
There’s really no other way to do it...
