Having a good heart? Do you have a good heart? If so, what does it look like? Not the shape or the cholesterol levels but the love that pours out of it. When you think of someone having a good heart, you often think, what they do with their money or their abundant resources. Are they donating to a charity program, did they help pay for a strangers groceries, did they buy a homeless man a meal. Those are all ideas of a good heart. No questioning about it. Now did they show it with love? 1 Corinthians 13:3, "And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing." They could've given the homeless guy a car, but without showing love, there is no gain. Now if they have adopted a child and given him/her a good home and loved that child as there own, there is gain in the love. Did they save a dog from an animal shelter, take it home and care for the dog, feed the dog, give it a name, gave it a bath, and loved that animal as one of their own. It's interesting to look at loving one another in a different perspective. Without love, you are nothing, as Paul states in Corinthians. Look at God, Jesus. He loves us so much even when we do bad. And many disciples, even nonbelievers, consistently state that He is all powerful, that He has an importance, because He has loved. Maybe next time when you donate clothes to goodwill, instead of mumbling and groaning that you had to put them in a box, drive or walk to the goodwill store, mumbling under your breath how dumb it sounds to give away clothes, you might put love into giving away clothes that your family doesn't want any more, that there is another family out there, maybe even lives a couple houses away from where you live, that desperately needs another shirt for the day, or a pair of pants to walk out of the house in. Love might even be difficult to show to some that are mean to you. But by showing that love that Jesus asks you to show, they might turn around and apologize and show love back. It's really amazing how love works. Especially in return. So have a good heart, show the love that God has loved you with, and in return, people will notice, God will notice and you will be loved back. It's amazing that God loves us. I question why He does, but I most likely won't know until I see Him in heaven. We have never deserved His great love.
When we begin to keep His word in our hearts and meditate on it, we begin to bare fruits. Galatians 5:22, "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness." Baring fruits of the Holy Spirit becomes a blessing amongst itself. Jesus asks us to do so, that we may become more like Him. One fruit that stands out to me most is that of patience. Patience has been the biggest of struggle for me in my life. I struggle with many others, but patience has always stood out. Even today, patience is always seeming to be the stumbler in life. When dealing with jobs or even grocery shopping, I've had to bite my lip and be patient. Even in simple situations as in driving, my impatience-ness seems to get in the way. Ever since I have come to Christ I have noticed a great difference in the patience I have obtained. Just through obtaining Gods word, I have been blessed with more patience. One verse that stands out to me about patience is James 1:4. It says, "but let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing." Let patience have its perfect work. Patience become perfect. You don't hear the word perfect very often. Usually when I hear it, it's referring to God or Christ. Which They are perfect. God, having patience of perfection, patience of a boss, has waited on me for almost nineteen years. Now that is a lot of patience. For others, it could be way more than that. It's amazing how such little patience can go such a long ways.
For tonight, I will write down 10 areas that I need to be more patient with and pray about them.
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