Operating out of Love

Text: Romans 8:15
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ (NRSV)

I look around and I see a community, state, nation, and world that has been battered by a pandemic and all the collateral damage that such things cause.  It would be easy to throw up my hands and give up.  It would be easy to respond out of fear and personal interest.

Many have been driven by fear.  Fear that if we take the proper precautions to eradicate or at least greatly reduce the affects of the pandemic that we will lose; we will lose our independence, we will lose our financial security, we will lose our relationships, we will lose our gathering places.

But God has never called us to operate out of fear but out of love.  When we do the right thing in God’s eyes, we are doing the thing that heals.  When we do the right thing in God’s eyes, we are doing the thing that offers hope.  When we do the right thing in God’s eyes, we are doing the thing that protects the week and vulnerable.  When we do the right thing in God’s eyes, we are never operating out selfishness for our own desires or interests, but out of sacrifice for the love of others.

Paul writes that the spirit we have received is a spirit of adoption.  We are God’s children and God, like any good parent, will care for his children.  When we cry, “Abba! Father!”, God hears our cries and responds to those who live out of love for neighbor—those who trust in God’s care—those who do not let the fear that is generated by an unbelieving world dictate their actions.

As the child of God, do not let fear drive you, but let your guiding light be God who is love.  Allow God to move you to respond to all things out of the depths of his love.

Pray with me:

Abba! Father! Remind me that you have not given me a spirit of slavery which causes me to operate out of my fears and personal self-interest but, you have given me a spirit of adoption which allows me to operate out of your love.  May all my responses be responses that bring unselfish love to bear no matter how difficult the circumstance in which I find myself.  AMEN.

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