What do we value most in life? Is it our possession, families, or God? Who does define us, so many of us struggle identifying with our real self. Who do we live for? God or man; I know it is easy to assume we all live for God, but often time than none our action says otherwise. To live for God does not only mean giving ourselves daily to God but also giving ourselves in love, daily to those around us especially those in need of it. We are too focused on material wealth as that is only when we get that true sense of accomplishment. There is what is called ‘need’ and ‘want’, according to the oxford dictionary ‘want’ is the desire to possess something , not necessarily required and ‘need’ is what we require because, they are essential. Often times than non Christians focus on the non essentials of life and forget the most essential of life. Our first obligation as children of God is to daily serve and life for God not the cars, house, money we mostly want. We lack that sense of gratitude to God for all he has done for us, that irrespective of our imperfections he loved us unconditionally.

He loved us first not only so that we might love him back but also give back this unconditional love to those around us, not limiting it to families and friends. This was made clear in john 13:34, when Jesus told his disciples ‘A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another’. Many of us are hard and impersonal human beings! Human beings do need a loving and healthy relationship with others we all need the occasional friendly physical contact and healthy laugh. Sharing a loving relationship with others is good for our physical, mental and emotional need.

I once read an article with a shocking story of a young man in his mid 20s, who was studying at a university but living in an off campus accommodation. This young man died, and for about two month which includes Christmas and other celebrative period no one miss him. Two eviction notices was attached to his door and inside his apartment his television was left on.

This story does confirm how cold our society has become and how many people in this society have become isolated. When you love in this extricate society, you are considered naive. If you are forgiving, you are considered weak. When you are trusting, you considered a fool. For those who sing or whistle at work, they are considered too simple and frivolous.

Yet when Jesus Christ was talking to his disciples about how the world will know his people, he said in john 13:35 ‘By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another’. As true Christians, we need to imbibe that attitude of love. We need to commit ourselves daily to learning from Christ (who is the perfect teacher) how to develop godly traits such as the ability to share, to listen, care, understand and respect, to walk in other shoes, to reveal our true feeling, to state our fears, expectations and regrets.

Often time we are selfish and we limit this love to families, friends and our earthly spiritual leaders. It is possible for one to give without loving, but we cannot love without giving. To love we have to give financially, spiritually, mentally, physically and emotional to others. Most times we do give to others for selfish gains. For example we can spend thousands of pounds which is big enough to send ten people to school, to buy a car for a pastor who already have fleets of car and you fail to help your relative who needs you to assistant in sponsoring them through school or even spare a pound for that needy man on the street not too far from your house.

My question is: does your pastor need that car more than that hungry man on the street who just five pound for him will go a long way? Of cause you will receive your blessing accordingly for blessing that man of God, but who do you think will receive the greatest blessing of all? The man who blessed his pastor with a car and mind you this pastor already have fleets of cars or the man who used what he has to bless that dying in desperate need on the street? .

I cannot answer this question for you, rather I will let you answer it as the lord directs. This is not limited to cars alone but also other needs of life; be it house, food, water, money e.t.c. We need to create that balance between those who ‘need’ and those who ‘want’ no matter how highly placed they are spiritually or otherwise. We need to sow rightly and to do this we need to seek God’s guardians. Our earthly mandate as believers is not just to love believers like us but also to reach out to the unbelievers with much love. Otherwise how different are we from the rest of the word.

This is an extract from the IVP New Testament commentaries about Jesus’ teaching on love that puts all this into perspective. Luke’s “Sermon on the Plain” is the Gospel equivalent of Paul’s chapter on love, 1 Corinthians 13. Here Jesus sets forth his ethic for daily life in detail. The sermon begins with recognition of the disciples’ blessing as a result of God’s grace. The rest of the sermon gives the ethical response to being such a beneficiary.

Disciples are to live and relate to others in a way that stands out from how people relate to one another in the world. They are to love and pray for their enemies. Righteousness requires that they respond wisely to Jesus’ words by building their lives around his teaching. In sum, disciples are to live and look different from the rest of the world, even as they reach out compassionately to that world.

Whenever you are faced with the difficulty of loving someone (as human sometimes we do) because of what they have done or perhaps who they are, let us always remember no amount of love you share with them will be greater than the love Christ have for us irrespective of our own imperfections. This was written in john 15:13 ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends’.

Enough of the morning over what we have lost in the past and those things we think we want. As true and loving believers of Jesus Christ, lets Our daily prayer not be what additional things God can give us, because the bible says he knows our needs even before we ask, but rather let our daily prayer be ‘God give me the Grace to use what I already have to be a blessing to others, teach me to love Lord’, because that is only when we get that true sense of accomplishment, purpose and greatness.

If we focus on what we want, we will never be satisfied, today we ask God for a car tomorrow it obviously going to be gas money to run the car, a day after tomorrow a new model of that car is out and we will obviously want the new make, a day after that it will be something else. when we try to measure our accomplishment by our material possession ( our recently the model of our car is, or the design of our house), there is no way we can get that true sense of accomplishment because a new car model and house design is going to come out tomorrow and likewise a day after. We try to fill that emptiness inside us with material things rather than Godly love. In summary let our daily purpose be to love one another as Christ have loved us.