Loving and serving others / Prioritizing the glory of God's Name

For me, showing love to others is very difficult. Words of affirmation, acts of service, receiving gifts, quality time, and physical touch are considered the five major love languages. Acts of service and quality time are the things that make me happy and show me love. I love to serve and give gifts to people. I need to personally work on receiving gifts and affirmation, as well as, affirming people with words of love.

What are your priorities? Is it God? Is it your academia? Is it your relationship?

I ask these question to challenge you to see what Jesus calls us to do and what we really make our priorities to be. We are called and commanded by God to serve, love, and sacrifice in order that the Gospel will be spread. In order to do this correctly, I need to use all the different love languages so I can get close enough with them to share.

I ask God to change my heart daily to want to serve and love on people better. How can I do that if I am not spending intentional time with the people I want to show this to?

As I contemplate my daily activities, I have realized how God is walking me to lead freshman at the University of Florida. Does this look like abandoning my comforts and securities to serve and love others? In the Bible, all I see is people giving it all to serve and love God. They had the spirit in them and focused their entire lives on making God known among their communities.

Praying that God will show me where I am being called to love and serve this semester!

What did Jesus really die for?

Was it my comfort? Was it for that beautiful white Jeep? Was it for the hours of time I spend listening to music and hanging out in my christian bubble? As I access my daily routine, I realized my lack of full abandonment. It seems that in America, we have constructed a middle-age, white Jesus that we all really like and always agree with. The issue with this is that there is too much security and comfort. 

As I navigate around my heart, I found that I am selfish human being and natural want to glorify myself and make my name known among the nations. Yes; you read that correctly. If I am honest with myself, I am selfish. People tend to agree with Christ's death for their sins and His grace, but like to skip over the verses that tell them to die everyday for the sake of sharing Christ and proclaiming his name. 

Paul was very clear in his message to the Romans, Corinthians, and Ephesians about the cost of being a disciple of Christ. He talks suffering, persecution, condemnation, and hatred as easy-going words. As a selfish Christian, I want to continue to make my dreams happen and I don't want to get on anyone's bad side because that would ruin my reputation as a good person. What is funny about that statement? "We have all fallen short of the glory of God." I guess that verse rules me out of being a good enough to get into heaven. 

Christ did not die so that we could continue worshiping ourselves and making more of our name known. He died so that we could have life and eternal security in heaven. He died so we could be in relationship with Him. He died so we could be close with him. He died so we could suffer for our short time on earth, so we could have everlasting love for eternity. He died so we could love, so we could share, and so we could serve. 

Am I too comfortable? Am I giving enough? Am I serving enough? Is my security in Christ or in luxuries? Am I dying daily for the sake of expanding God's kingdom? Am I making less of myself and more of God? Am I making myself to be worthy of praise? Am I currently enrolled in a self-salvation project?

I ask these questions to make you think. "God shows His love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." He came to save us and we have His love and grace inside of our hearts forever because we were pierced by it. So if we are surrendered to Him, why are we not giving everything we have to make His name known?