13 Ways to Prove Love

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Often when people enter love relationships or take marriage vows, they often promise to do a lot of beautiful things. The couple promise to stick to each other in good or trying times. They promise to love, respect, endure, and tolerate one other. Yet some of these marriages and relationships end up crashing. Is it that there wasn’t love in them? Or we just don’t understand what love means?

There are many definitions of love, but as a person of the Christian faith, I believe this scripture spells out clearly what true love is:

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

This passage is my greatest chapter on love in all of the Bible and here it shows us the tangible evidence of true love;

The Danger in Helping Too Much

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Blessings can sometimes turn to a curse in one’s life. Even kindness may be overdone. One may be too gentle. Love may hold others back from their purpose and wreck their destinies. There are times when in the process loving others we meddle with God’s discipline for them.

Of course, we are to be helpful to others. No aim should be put higher in our life-plans than that of personal helpfulness. The motto of the true Christian cannot be other than that of the Master: “Not to be ministered unto, but to minister.”

Even in the ambition to gather and retain wealth, the spirit of the desire must be, if we are Christians at all, that thereby we may become more helpful to others; that through, or by means of, our wealth, we may be enabled to do larger and greater good. Whatever gift, power, or possession we have that we do not seek to use in this way is not yet truly devoted to God.

There are many ways to help others, yet too often most people think if you are not giving material things out, you are not helping, yet the truest and best help anyone can give to others is not in material things, but in ways that make them stronger and better. Money is good alms when money is really needed, but in comparison with the divine gifts of hope, friendship, courage, sympathy, and love, it is paltry and poor.

What it Takes to Be in Love

We don’t live alone in this world. We live in companionships, in families, in friendships, in churches, in communities and to do that require our ability to get along with others. Yet there are some of us who complain about the difficulty of getting along with others.

These type of people are very good on their own, and when alone, where no other life comes in contact with theirs, where they are entirely their own master and have to think only of themselves, and where they can have their own way, who yet make most wretched business of living when they come into living with others.

Unfortunately this seems to be the new code in the world today. Too many messages abound that praise and encourage people to be selfish, tyrannical, absorbing, despotic, and wilful. People are being encouraged to not brook suggestions, request or authority. All around us we find people who will not make any compromise, will not yield their own opinions, preferences, or prejudices, will not submit to any inconveniences, or any sacrifice.

You Too Can Be Like Christ to Someone

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In the New Testament Bible you find so many wonderful tales of the powerful touch of Christ when he was on earth. Wherever he went we are told of how he laid his hand, left a blessing, healed the sick, comforted the sad, and gave the troubled peace.

But Christ isn’t physically present with us anymore. He lives with the Father above. But what about his touch? Everyone longs for the touch of Christ; we yearn for it in our prayer meetings, in churches, at home, at work, at school, every day we cry for that special touch of Christ.

While Christ is still touching lives in our midst, there is another way in which his touch is felt in human lives; through us. He himself said, “As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” God has ordained you and I to save the world, to heal, help, comfort, lift up and build up others.

We have been called and ordained to be as Christ in the lives of the people around us but too often we fail in this responsibility as, we too expect God to come down and save the world when we are his human agents and instruments.

Are You Your Brothers’ Keeper?

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I woke up with this message; just because someone appears to be doing well doesn’t mean they are. How well do we know the people around us? I am actually very guilty about this.

Folks people are not usually what we assume they are; Just because someone is always smiling doesn’t mean they are actually happy on the inside, they may be going through so much difficulties. Just because someone you know is rich doesn’t mean they don’t have issues.

We have been called to be our brothers’ keepers. How much of this work have we been doing? Look a person may be married, and you assume oh he/she is okay and happily married, but on the contrary the marriage isn’t doing as well as it seems and since you don’t bother to care enough, you will never know. A person may appear to have it all together and living the life, but inside them they just don’t have the kind of peace and joy that you enjoy and can offer them if you get closer a bit to care.

I know we live in a world where everyone is trying to mind their business, where we think getting close to people mean we are violating their privacy but God says we should do better.

Recently my friend came to me weeping and narrating her ordeal; how a friend of hers called her to please go and check on his mother, whom he had been trying to reach on the phone but to no avail. He texted her address and when she got there, the door was locked but it appeared someone was inside the apartment.

Who is Without Mistakes?

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I was taking a stroll around the estate I live recently when I heard some loud screams coming from one of the buildings within, out of curiosity I paused my walk and listened. From what I could make it was a father and daughter argument, with the father threathening hell and brimstone on the daughter. In his own words the man was saying, “You are a disgrace to my name, a big disappointment and I really wished you weren’t my child. After all the investments and sacrifice I have made to give you a good life, all you can come up with is that you are pregnant?”

As I walked back home, I thought of that girl, and others like her who have been abused and shamed by their parents, family, friends, community, or churches because of the sins and mistakes they made with their lives. I thought about the angry father and others like him, and asked, has he been perfect all his life? Hasn’t he been making mistakes? What if God treated us the way we all deserved? What if God gave us instant judgement for our sins, how many of us will be alive today?

Seek to Build and Not to Destroy!

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“Never tear down anything unless you are prepared to build something better in its place.” I think of these wise words each time I read or hear people writing or saying negative things about others. Many of us have a habit of criticizing and condemning others – especially church leaders and their messages. I was on a social media platform recently and someone who has a significant following online was condemning a leading pastor as “Anti-Christ” and not a true believer.

If you find yourself always attacking, opposing and criticizing the actions of others, remember, it is easy to condemn, criticize and attack other people thoughtlessly for their failings and mistakes, and equally easy to find fault in their work or in situations that are not to your liking. It is far more difficult to empathize and help build people up. Until you work their paths you will never know what people go through to get where they are in life.

The bible says the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy others joy, happiness, laughter, progress, work, successes and lives. Don’t become the thief! Negative criticism and condemning others is cheap, so let’s stop doing easy and cheap things. One way to do this is to try and catch yourself being negative towards others, and remember the old saying, “If you can’t say something nice about someone, don’t say anything at all.”

Do Unto Others What You Want Them to DO to YOu

One scriptural verse many people are familiar with and often refer to is “In everything do unto others what you want them to do to you…” I also hear this among non Christians. Unfortunately most of us limit the meaning of this powerful law to just “doing”, and actions. Has it cross your mind that this powerful law also refers to your thoughts and wishes concerning others?

We are to not only do unto others, but to think about others, wish for others what you want them to do to you, think about you and wish for you. If we practice this law we will find more love and harmony among people; there will be less bickering, hate, jealousy and envy as all you will be having for others are thoughts, wishes and actions of love and you will get same in return too.

You Can Serve God in Small Way Too

Many people these days are looking for big opportunities to serve. Everyone wants to appear in a big stage; speakers and preachers want to speak before crowds of thousands. Only very few people are willing to express their gifts or serve God in a small capacity. It’s especially painful when “Men of God” do this, when they feel too big and important to preach or teach in a small church or event, they are always looking for the packed halls and stadia.

Thank God our God isn’t a respecter of persons, so He doesn’t rate you by the number of social media followers you have, or by the size of the crowds you’ve stood before. It is only man thst is obsessed with “scale” “rating” “size” “status” “followers”. Our God is too great a God to need your great deeds. As long as we are using our gifts/talents to work for Him where we find ourselves it really doesn’t make any difference whether we do our work in a remote village, attending to people who wouldn’t be able to repay our sacrifices or we are serving thousands of people daily.

Folks the little things you do that a lot of people leave undone, the small services you render that are despised by the big crowd loving guys are great enough to glorify God as long as you are doing them for God.