Day 16: What Matters Most

Don't we all wonder what matters most in our lives? Guess what? Life is all about love. Because God is love, He wants us to learn how to love.. above all else. It is in loving that we are most like Him!

Learning to love unselfishly is difficult because we are self-centred people, but He's given us a lifetime to learn it! God wants us to love everyone, but He's particularly concerned that we learn to love others in His family. Why? Because God wants His family to be known for its love more than anything else. Jesus said, "Your love for each other will prove to the world that you are my disciples". Amazing revelation huh?

And guess what? We cannot learn to love if we're in isolation. THAT'S WHY we always stress the importance of being in a care group - having relationship and fellowship with one another! That's why we stress the crucialness (is there even such a word?) of being planted in a church, being in regular close fellowship with other believers! We HAVE to be around people - irritating, imperfect, frustrating people to learn to love! =)

1. Life without love is really worthless. Life minus love = ZERO
1Corinthians13:3
No matter what i say, what i believe, and what i do, I'm bankrupt without love.
Matt 22:27-30
You must love the Lord your God with all your heart... This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbour as yourself. All the other commandments and all the demands of the phophets are based on these two commandments.

After learning to love God, learning to love others is the second purpose of our lives.

Relationships, are what matters most in life. Why do we then allow our relationships to get the short end of the stick? Busyness is a great enemy of relationships. We become preoccupied with making a living, doing our work, paying bills, accomplishing goals as if these tasks are the point of life! They are NOT! The point of life is to love - God and people.

2. Love will last forever.
1 Corin 13:13
These three things continue forever: faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love.

Love leaves a legacy. How you treat other people, not wealth or accomplishments, is the most enduring impact you can leave on earth. Its not what you do, but how much love you put into it that matters. Imagine being on your death bed, you wouldnt surround yourself with objects but what we'd want si people we love and have relationships with. In our final moments we realise that relationships are what life is all about. Wisdom is learning the truth sooner rather than later. Let's not wait til then to love.

3. We will be evaluated on our love.
One of the ways God measures spiritual maturity is by the quality of your relationships. He will review how we treated other people, especially those in need. Jesus said the way to love Him is to love His family and care for their practical needs. Matt 25:40. When we go to eternity, we leave everything else behind except our character. Thats why the bible says "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love".

The importance of things can be measures by how much time we are willing to invest in them. Time is our most precious gift because when we give someone our time, we are giving a portion of our lives that we'll never get back. Your time is your life! Thats why the greatest gift we can give someone is our time.

its not enough to say relationships are important, we must prove it by investing time in them. The essence of love is how much we give of ourselves. You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving - giving up our preferences, comfort, goals, security, money, energy or time for the benefit of someone else.

The best time to love is NOW. We dont know how long we will have the opportunity. Circumstances change. People die. We have no gurantee of tomorrow. The best use of life is love. THe best expression of love is time. The best time to love is now.