A Love Challenge – What we need today – Go!

What happened to love? We need a love challenge.

I almost hate to look at my Facebook feed these days. Nearly every time I do, I am greeted with various rants from my friends. They leave me hurt and, sometimes, heart-broken. There is far too much animosity, anger and bitterness.

These expressions of ‘anti-love’ have me wondering if we forgot that Jesus said that love encompasses the two greatest commandments. The apostle Paul went so far as to say that love is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:10).

If we truly love it will show just as it shows when we don’t truly love.

Here’s a love challenge for this year. Decide to love, truly love, and let it show in every aspect of your life.

Three aspects of love

There are three essential areas that love must rule. And one habit that will ensure that you love. There is also one overriding principle that will help you succeed with the love challenge.

Thought

Every aspect of your life, all your actions, attitudes, words, reactions, expressions and body language spring from your thought life. If you aren’t thinking in loving ways, you will never live in loving ways.

Deciding to love is the first step to being a loving person. You must decide to love everyone. That means you love people in your family, church, neighborhood, work, school, government. It means you love those you share the road with and the ones you share the stores where you shop with.

There can be no exceptions to those you love. You must decide to love everyone – even those you completely disagree with.

You must decide not to imitate the world around you. Just because someone else isn’t very loving to you doesn’t give you license to be unloving to them.

You must make a great effort to eliminate thoughts that are unloving and cultivate thoughts that are loving.

The habit you must establish starts here: ask God to help you be loving in all things.

Words

Our words must reflect our decision to love. This is an area that requires self-control. Our love challenge will most readily be visible through our words.

Direct words of love are important. Everyone likes to hear that they are loved. Our ears are tuned to those words and our minds are comforted to hear the ‘I love yous’ that are directed our way.

Every day, you should tell at least one person you love them. And you should include loving comments in many of your conversations throughout the day. The words you share in social media should also reflect that love.

Responding to the love challenge also means you will eliminate some of your comments and conversation. Most criticism is not loving. If you eliminate all criticism, you will eliminate the unloving criticism that comes from your mouth. Gossip is unloving. The Bible calls it sin because it doesn’t reflect the love that we are to live by.

Retaliatory words are unloving as well. I often see these kinds of words on social media. We need more soft answers. We need more effort to live at peace with everyone!

Venting and ranting are not loving words.

Our words have power to heal and power to destroy. Use love to make your words healing.

Cultivate the habit of asking God to help your words to be loving all the time.

Action

When our thoughts and words are filled with love it is easier for our actions to be filled with love as well. There are practical and biblical things you can do to demonstrate love. When you help the weak and the disenfranchised you are putting love in action. Helping the poor without passing judgment is something we, as followers of Jesus, should do.

Our lives should be characterized by helpfulness, kindness, encouragement and friendliness.

One Principle

Jesus put forward the golden rule. We must do to others as we would have them do to us. This is a simple principle that will help us love consistently.

One habit

Pray that you will be loving in every aspect of your life.

Get serious about the Love Challenge!

Two action points for you to take to heart today: begin a habit of prayer to help you be more loving and encourage someone else to take the love challenge by sharing this article on your social media pages or through your email.