Day 18: Motive check...

How is your Love 40 days journey going?  As we are nearly half way through our 40 day challenge, it is time for a little motive check...

It may seem silly to think that trying to obey Jesus' commandment to love others could be a temptation to us, but it is easy to slip into pride, self-righteousness and thinking that we can do great things by ourselves.  Are we really trying to serve the person we are loving today purely to show them love, or is there part of us that enjoys feeling good about ourselves and wants to draw attention to our good deeds?  If we are being really honest with ourselves, there may well be part of that...

And so today, let's use these words from Philippians 2:3-4 to help us stay pure of heart as we love others...

 

Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others.  Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.  Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

 

If we ask Him, God will give us humility and help us withstand any temptation to think or ourselves before we think of others during this period, and Jesus is the greatest example of being humble and serving others that we could ever find.  Allow the Holy Spirit to work in you as you love today and know that God is with you as you seek to obey His word.

 

For the kids:

Have you been enjoying loving others for Love 40 days so far?  It is sometimes easy to enjoy doing loving things for others because we know they will be really pleased with us and maybe give us something back, or because we know they will think we are really good and praise us.  But this is not why we love and we have to be careful to remember that we are loving others because we want to be like Jesus and for our friends to come to know Jesus too.  God knows that it is easy for us to get confused and so He made sure there are verses to help us with every situation - including this one - in the Bible.  In Philippians 2:3-4 it says: Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others.  Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.  Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others too.  Ask God to help you remember this today as you plan your Love 40 days activity so that you are loving without thinking of what it might do for you.