Loving

I'm thinking today about love and loving people well and asking this simple question: 

Am I loving people or using people? 

This is a tough one to be honest about. But it's one to ask yourself because it's easy to look like you're loving people, but you're not. And it all has to do the motivation of the heart. It's something only you and God can answer. 

Using people involves selfish giving. It gives with the thought that it will get something back. Maybe you compliment someone but your motivation isn't really to encourage them, it's with the hopes that they will compliment back. Maybe you give a financial donation somewhere but it's all for appearance so others will look and see how generous you are. Or maybe you give a gift to someone but it's to use as a manipulating device to get them to do what you want them to do. 

Really loving people removes self from the equation altogether. It is not looking to see how it will benefit from it. It is not a means to an end. Loving is the goal and the only goal. 

Love sees people for who they are, people. Not a number. It is concerned about people's hearts and welfare. And love is not concerned about its own reputation or how it looks to others. So it's not afraid, for example, to look messy if what is needed in the moment involves hugs, tears and prayers spoken in unusual places like grocery stores and gyms. 

On a side note, love is not focused on getting people to just look proper. It's goal is not to fix appearance. Love always wants to get to the heart of the matter, not just clean up the outside of a person. So love looks beyond bad behavior to see what is happening in the heart so it can get to the root. It opens up the deeper parts because it knows it is for the healing of the whole person. Love sets free. 

So, as I walk into this day I'm going to keep these things in mind and ask God to help me truly love people -- unselfishly. I'm going to love them simply because God loves them. And that is reason enough. 

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If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. 

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13‬:‭1‬-‭7‬ ‭NLT‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.13.1-7.NLT