What’s your heart full of? Both Matthew (15) and Luke (6) talk about whatever is in the heart – the mouth speaks. It’s like a pitcher that is filled with water and as more is added, it overflows. So what’s your heart overflowing with? Love? Pain? Joy? Frustration? What is in abundance? Never forget that whatever is in your heart directs your actions primarily because it first directs your thoughts… leading to action.
Is your heart full of love? Do you love the Lord and Who He is in your life? How does this love express itself?
“He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who
loves Me…” (John 14:21)
In my world of words, one of the definitions for ‘keep’ means to act on, to do. Webster defines keep as: “…to not return, lose, sell, give away or throw away…” Somehow this also defines ‘keep’ as valuable so whatever is not returned, lost, sold, given away is important.
This requires us to look at His commandments.
*Matthew 22:36-40; Mark 12:30-31 – “Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. ‘And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
*John 15:12 – “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (15:9-17)
*1John 4:21 – “And this commandment we have from Him, that he who loves God must love his brother also.”
His commandments – Love. All the commandments given refer to the act of Love. Does love ‘control’ us, direct us? Do we act in love? I would contend that those who follow those words have hearts that are full of love.
When you realize that loving is always your choice – it is never anything that can be commanded, then you begin to realize the power of the word. One of the most oft quoted scriptures is 1 Corinthians 13:13 – the entire chapter (13) talks about love and what it is, what it does. Love is a powerful force in lives. And when scripture states that it is even greater than faith and hope, we begin to appreciate exactly how it can motivate our behavior.
While it is our choice to love others, we can’t ‘make’ them accept the love. Receiving love is also a free choice. It doesn’t mean that we are free from the responsibility to love… unconditionally. It’s the ‘unconditionally’ part that tends to be the problem. How do we extend love unconditionally? I believe that there are a couple of ways we can discover if this is our motivation. 1. Do we expect reciprocation, a quid pro quo? Or do we freely give love – eyes wide open? 2. when we ‘give’ love, do we do it without partiality? Do we not ‘judge’ the value of the person receiving our extended gift? There are other standards we can look at to ‘judge’ our expression, but those two begin the process.
It is always what’s in our heart that motivates. It is how we express, how we act, what we do. It’s how we keep the great love commandment that defines how we love the Lord. “…Freely you have received, freely give.” (Matthew 10:8b)
“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of
these is love.” (1Corinthians 13:13)
Do you speak love? Do you want to because it is a walk that isn’t always easy because love isn’t a mat you let others wipe their feet on and it takes strength to react in love, especially to those who either refuse your love or rebuff it in some way. Then again… if you consider the actions of Jesus you see Him act in love toward others even when they don’t return it or refuse it. He never acted in love to ‘get something’ in return. He did it our of a full heart. Will we? What is our heart full of?
