Love in Action

If you came here today from (in)courage, WELCOME! So glad you came. I pray the Lord speaks to you as loudly as He spoke these words to me. God Bless!

Zechariah 7:9-10 (New International Version)

9 "This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.'

This passage from Zechariah follows the Lord’s questioning of the Israelites feasting and fasting days. It seems that they were only living to themselves, not to God. They had hardened their hearts and stopped up their ears so that they didn‘t hear the Lord‘s pleas for them to return to Him. I find that we are not so much different than they are. How often do I choose to look out at the widow or the orphan? What have I done to ensure that there is justice (correct order) in my society? When have I shown love, mercy and compassion in action to anyone (1Jn 3:16-24, James 1:27)?

Instead I have chosen to turn off the news because the degradation of society disturbs me and I don’t want to see it. I choose not to hear the cries of those who have no one to care for them. I declare that there is nothing that just one person can accomplish so I sit on my hands and wait on another to move. I am too lazy to step out of my comfortable sheltered life to actually love on anyone. At times even my own family must feel neglected by my lack of action on their behalf. Forgive me Lord!


I hope that you don’t find yourself as guilty as I did upon reading these verses. But if you have, there is forgiveness in Christ. I pray that mine is a true repentance. A 180 degree turn that will point me to Love in Action. How will anyone ever know that Jesus will work for them if they never see Him working in us? It is said that we are the hands and feet of Jesus. When I read my bible, Jesus is always moving with love and compassion to help others or teaching with passion and conviction so that sinners might repent. May you and I truly have the hands and feet of Jesus in this world TODAY!

More on Encouragement...

Guess what! I just won $500!! I get the privilege of giving half of it to a deserving charity. I am praying hard about who to choose. I won the money from a giveaway sponsored by (in)courage and Dayspring card company. (see yesterday's post) I often enter giveaways but am rarely the winner. To be honest, I never even considered winning this time. I was just excited about sharing encouraging words. I guess God knew I needed a little encouragement today. Thanks so much to all involved at (in)courage and Dayspring. Head on over to (in)courage to check out the great and encouraging words over there.

Encouragement

Happy Encouragement Day to everyone! I hope that you were able to attend a church service today and receive some encouragement from Our Heavenly Father. I was surely encouraged as I attended our homecoming service today. God is so awesome!!

The reason I know that today is Encouragement Day is an offer I responded to from the (in)courage website for 10 Dayspring cards in return for the promise of sending them out to encourage someone. The agreement was to send just one, but as I got to thinking about who I was going to send one to, the Lord kept revealing more and more people that need encouragement in my circle of influence. Many of them are people that I just never feel like I know what to say to because I have never walked in their shoes, but I know from experience that a card that says I love you and I am thinking about you is a real day lifter. I know I will probably never hear about or get to see the look on their face as they receive their gift of encouragement from me, but I know that each person will be able to smile and hold their head a little higher because of an encouraging word form me and the Lord.  He is "the lifter of our heads" but who's to say He doesn't want to use my hand to do it every now and then!