Let us hold unswervingly to the hopeDear Father in heaven, open our hearts to see and feel how our lives have been blest. Open our hearts to your blessings so that we may look forward in thankfulness and joy to what lies ahead. Grant that we may be faithful to what we have received from you and never again lose ourselves in the passing moment. May we hold to all you have brought to our hearts from eternity, that your name may be honored and our lives shaped anew in Jesus Christ. Give us courage to overcome the evils in life and to look with joy and confident expectation to the future, when the powers of your kingdom will be ever more clearly revealed. Amen.
Do you ever sit in front of the computer – or with a piece of blank paper – supposed to come up with something meaningful and interesting – and asking yourself “WHY oh WHY did I agree to do this?”
When Samuel asked me to replace him today I'd just come back from a week of vacation in Denmark and jetlag had not even set in and I did not think about how little time I had to prepare.
I asked Nicolas what he thought – and he said: “talk about motivation!!”
So I have been thinking about motivation all week….
We are motivated to go to work
…motivated to get up in the morning
…motivated to bake a bath of cookies
…motivated to repair our child's best shirt (even though it should have been in the dumpster last year)
…motivated to drive 500 miles each way – on the same day – at the beginning of the school year – to university or college to make sure our independent, adult kids are properly “installed” in their new place…..
…motivated to answer all the “whys” from our two year old children or grandchildren without loosing patience.
…motivated to listen to “uncle Bob” telling the same story again and again.
Why are we motivated?
Nicolas and I came up with a couple of answers:
A sense of duty – the neighbor is away on vacation and the grass is getting long so you cut it for him.
Rewards – I go to work – I get paid, I exercise I look and feel better
Happiness – or having fun - You did something you are good at and you had fun doing it (arranging the flowers for mothers birthday, organizing the company picnic…)
Love – I think – is the biggest motivator of all. It is unselfish and it has the biggest rewards of all because those rewards are unexpected.
The word "love" in English has a variety of meanings, and not all are useful in a biblical context.
A key to understanding the word as it is used in the New Testament can be found in the passage where love is joined to sacrifice, to selfless giving: John 15:13 "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends."
In this sense love means the opposite of selfishness.
The Greek language has a separate word, "eros", for the sexual form of love from which we get the word "erotic". This is not what is meant when the Gospel talks about love of God and neighbor.
In (Dictionary.com) the word “love” is explained like this:
The word “love” when used in the bible's moral teaching can and does have all the non-sexual and non-romantic meanings towards God and neighbor, such as: "A deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person, such as that arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities, or a sense of underlying oneness." However, morality usually talks about decisions on how to act rather than feelings. Therefore, the command requires us to think, to use a rational process to decide how to act with love in a situation rather than acting with love when we have feelings of love. Feelings come and go. We may love our parents but not feel very loving sometimes especially when they require us to do something we don't want to do. God as parent may evoke the same "feeling" and yet demands the same response, i.e. that we love Him anyway.
"Phil. 2:4 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others."
Love one another
John 13:34 "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. "
John 15:12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. "
John 15:17 "I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another."
Rom. 12:10 "Love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor."
Rom. 13:8 "Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law."
1Ths. 4:9 "Now concerning love of the brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another; "
1Pet. 1:22 "Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. "
1John 3:11 "For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another."
1John 3:14 "We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Whoever does not love abides in death. "
1John 3:23 "And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us."
1John 4:7 "Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. "
1John 4:11 "Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. "
1John 4:12 "No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us."
2John 5 "But now, dear lady, I ask you, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning, let us love one another."
1John 4:20 Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.
Love Your Neighbor
Matt. 19:19 "...You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Also, Matt. 22:39, Mark 12:31.
Luke 10:27 He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."
Rom. 13:9 The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet"; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, "Love your neighbor as yourself."
Rom. 13:10 "Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law."
Gal. 5:14 For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
James 2:8 "You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"
Matt. 22:34,40 " When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, " You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
What Is Love?
1Cor. 13:4,7 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
Luke 6:27,31 "But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others, as you would have them do to you.
Luke 6:32,36 "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Luke 6:37,38 "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back."
It was Christ who declared, "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35).
Let's all be motivated by love – love for one another – friends, family, neighbors and yes - also our enemies – just as our Father in Heaven has asked us to.
Celebration of Love Prayer
Deep and restless....like the ocean
Happy and hopeful....like the laughter of children
Limitless and free.....like a misted horizon
May Love enter us lightly and dwell within us like a friend
Breathless and fragrant....like breeze across a rose bower
Heart-stopping and ardent.....like lips touching flesh
Sparkling and glittering....like night-time's first star
May Love enter us softly and touch our souls with Light
Courageous and humble....like a bright warrior
Generous and gentle....like the rays of the Sun
Whispered and intimate....like secret winds across leaves
May love enter us tenderly and brush our spirits with its wings
Warm and bright....like the flame of a candle
Tinted and magical.....like the sky's rainbows
Tested and true....like the Love of God
May Love enter us completely and guide us ever in its way
May Love enter us lightly and dwell within us like a friend
May Love enter us softly and touch our souls with Light
May Love enter us tenderly and brush our spirits with its wings
May Love enter us completely and guide us ever in its way
May Love touch us with Life
Enfold us in its power
May it cast out our fears
And drive the darkness from our minds
May we live forever in the Light of Love
Written by Saul (1994)
Anne Jorgensen
August 31, 2003