Loving Him and Loving Others Are Our Greatest Commands, By Chadia M.

Loving Him and Loving Others Are Our Greatest Commands

By Chadia M. 

I am aware that when I’m talking about loving God and loving others, many of us feel like they already do that. However, I’ve been living through times where God calls me to re-examine my love for Him, and especially for others. Ask yourself, what is the first thing/ person you think about when you wake up? Is it yourself? How “you” are going to do in that test, how “you” are going to dress up, where “you” are going to go for shopping with “your” friends,… Or when you find a picture of you and your friends/family, who do you look for first? Isn’t it you? Here I’m not judging anyone. It is normal to act this way, that’s what everyone does, it is in our nature. In everything we want to be first; yes we make sure that the people we” love” are fine and satisfied but even unconsciously, we check on ourselves first. But is this what God prepared for us? Is it conform to his awesome plan for us? I don’t think so. God has always wanted us, from the beginning, to be selfless and to put others before us, at the example of Christ who didn’t spare his life because of his love for us.
Lately, God has been asking me to tell people at my school about Him. I am new at the school and as I am from a French speaking country, my English is not very good. However, I accepted, knowing that He would do the work anyway because it’s not by my might or by my power that anything is done, it is by His Spirit. So I prayed for the mission and I went, selfless, trying to bring to Jesus as many people as I could. But I realized that the zeal I was putting in talking about Jesus is not the zeal that people were using to respond. In fact, people were starting to change their opinion about Christ, but they were not willing to get saved. That’s then that Jesus told what was wrong. I was not loving and praying for them. All that time, I had been praying for myself, for the strength to go to them, but I was not praying to God so that He would change them. I was not loving them as I should have. I was loving myself more than I loved them. That’s how I learned my lesson. From then on, I constantly examine myself, trying to put other people’s interests before mine and you know what, yesterday, one of my atheists friends go saved after such a long time trying to bring her to Christ! Remember, it’s only when we start thinking, loving and loving others that God blesses our work beyond measure. John 12:26 says that the Father will honor those who serve Jesus and this is the truth. (Read John 12:25-26)
I just want to encourage each of you girls, there is more joy in giving to others than in receiving. Christ is all about giving even when we are undeserving. Let your love for the Lord and for others consume you and become less at the same time, as Christ become bigger (John 3:30). Then you will be truly amazed by all God can do through you.
Verses to read:
 James 1:27
“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.”
1 John 3:11-18
 “This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. If we love our Christian brothers and sisters, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead. Anyone who hates another brother or sister* is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don't have eternal life within them.
  We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister* in need but shows no compassion—how can God's love be in that person? Dear children, let's not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.”
1 John 2:7
Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment—to love one another—is the same message you heard before.