Faith and Love

Galatians 5:6 "For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love."

In the New Testament bible called "The Voice" that I sometimes read and have talked about on here before it says something very interesting. It's says 'faith energized by love'. That really stood out to me.

I love that concept. Faith-energized by love.

Isn't that what church is all about? Being a part of a church family is about more then just learning and growing in your faith. It's about learning and growing in love. Faith and love are not separate concepts my friends they go hand in hand. James says that faith without works is dead, the reason for that is simple. When we have faith, motivated or energized by love it overflows from our hearts and comes out in good works.

Faith isn't stagnant. It's constantly growing, changing and being expressed by our actions and deeds. And what powers this great force in our lives? The greatest attribute of all- love. Love energizes our faith to make it change and grow and have an impact, not just on ourselves but others.

The Bible talks about being a light in this world. What better way to be a light then to show the love of Jesus? And how do we do that? We do that by acting out our faith. Faith energized by love.

This concept is something, especially as we go into the holidays, that is really on my heart.

Faith. Love. Faith energized by love.

What does that look like for you this week?

For me it's simple, saying Merry Christmas, smiling more, and finding small ways to do good deeds like dropping change into the buckets of the Salvation Army bell ringers. It's about finding ways to pray for people and listening more then I talk. All of these are ways that I'm letting my faith be energized by love. The love of Christ for me. His love for others. The love that He gives me for this lost and broken world at the time of the season when we celebrate His amazing love for us that urged Him to come and be born as a baby to save us from our sins.

Merry Christmas friends!!!

And yes, I will end up saying that every week probably until Christmas. After all, you can never hear it too many times!