| Wednesday, February 13, 2008 | ||||
| Yield To Love Dr. Creflo A. Dollar Love and selfishness are the two greatest forces in life. A person chooses to walk in one or the other every day. What many people call love really isn't love at all. Real love-which is agape love or the God kind of love-is unconditional, limitless, selfless and is not based on emotions. It is extremely tolerant. Unfortunately, most people operate in selfishness. They live in human, emotional love, which has limits, is conditional, requires pre-qualification and has to be loved before it can love. Selfishness is the root of all sin, which is based in fear. As a result, our society is experiencing a tremendous amount of lawlessness, perversion and sin. Families are being destroyed because people are engaging in human, emotional love rather than taking the time to learn about and develop in agape love. Selfishness in the home can creep up in so many subtle ways, particularly between a husband and wife. If you are married, here's a newsflash-it's not all about you! Everything in life should not focus around you and your needs, but rather the needs of your spouse. It is important to find balance and compromise within relationships in order to maintain peace in the home. You can kick selfishness out of your home. How? Yield to love. Jesus gave two commandments that are the foundational principles for every commandment in the Bible: "...love the Lord thy God with all of thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy mind... love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matthew 22:7,39). When you keep the law of love, you fulfill all of the laws written in the Bible. Have you made the decision to walk in love so that you will fulfill Jesus' commandment and allow God's spiritual principles to work in your life? Or have you chosen to operate in your own way of doing things? Things don't just happen. Life is a series of decisions that ultimately determine your future. One very important decision every person should make is to be an expression of God's love on the earth. There are two laws that govern life: the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which is love; and the law of sin and death, which is selfishness (Romans 8:2). Like curtains on a curtain rod, your deliverance, answered prayers, healing and faith all hang on the rod of love. If you are not walking in God's agape love, then you are limiting what God can do in your life. I encourage you to take the love test by reading 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. After reading this portion of Scripture, you will know to what extent you have-or have not-yielded your life to love. .. BEGIN MP3 FOOTER - Creflo Dollar --> ..> ..>
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(1) This line hit me pretty hard. Selfishness is something I've been fighting with my entire life. As the eldest of 5 children, I had nothing of my own,a nd was always made to share. As a parent, you naturally give/share everything you have. I like to share, but it's kinda nice if folks share back (not that I "do" in order to receive - it's just the flesh nature to say, "What about me?") and I seem to know a lot of people who are takers, not givers. I realize that my selfishness comes from fear - fear of having nothing, fear of being alone, fear of not being accepted. Therefore, I pray daily for God to help me in this area; I have to yield my self over to Him so He can love others through me.
(2) So true! I've said many times throughout my life, even before I was saved, that the things I went through shaped the person I became. There are SO many decisions I wish I could have a "do-over" on. The fact is, however, that those decisions eventually led me to accept Christ, for which I am eternally grateful! I am able to identify with others - both lost & saved - and because of my life experience I am able to minister to them with compassion instead of judgment.
(3) Without love for others, everything we do is in vain. The world will still turn, the sun will still set, people will still do what they do & be who they are, even if we do not love them. But how many lives could possibly be changed if each of us took just one day to be kind to EVERYONE, even those whom we usually avoid or casually dismiss simply because it's easier to do so than to try to love them as Jesus would?
I want to learn to love others well, following in the footsteps of my Lord & Savior, Jesus Christ!
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