Love is a Motive

God's been working on my heart this month. He's put in my place many times, and He's been reminding me each day that He's the one in charge. The convictions keep coming my way, and while it can be frustrating, it's also rewarding.

I've been reading through the book of John with a friend. God has really been convicting me of being a true Christian. As I read I've been questioning my faith, and I've been challenged to make it stronger. My faith is big in my heart, but my actions in this world are small.

I had a conversation the other day with a Peruvian friend about serving and prayer. We had a very similar conversation last year around this time, and it actually again was brought up in Bible study tonight. You see, this man is a man of faith. He is prayer warrior for Christ, and his faith that Christ can and will provide for each one of his needs is stronger than most people I know. In all three conversations the basis of the topic was love...love for Christ leads to love for others.

Tonight at Bible study we read 1st Corinthians 13...the LOVE chapter. We talked about love as a motive, and I related this to the ,conversation I had with my friend earlier this week and year ago. In that conversation, my friend was telling me about all of the Americans that come to Peru to glorify themselves. He told me that he could easily spot someone who came down to serve in the ministry because they loved God and loved his people. He also told me that he has learned to easily spot those people who come to Peru to serve themselves and return home saying, "look what I did." He, too, mentioned love being the motive.

Serving because you want to bring glory to yourself leads you to be an ineffective witness and can sometimes turn others away from Christ. You get easily frustrated with the work, you lose patience with the lack of available resources, you become irritated at the different way of doing things, etc. However, when one chooses to serve others out of love for Christ and the mission Christ has set before us, the stakes change. Those you are serving see your heart, they notice your act of kindness, and they feel loved because you are loving on them through service. People are drawn to you when you serve in this way, and they want to know why you choose to serve them when you have "better things" to do with your time. They are drawn to Christ because you are a model of Christ's love to them.

Last year I was in Peru to serve. I was not there to bring glory to myself or have people say great things about me. I was there because God gave me a love for the people of Peru, and God provided an amazing opportunity for me to share life with them, even though it was only for a short time. Viewing love as a motive has really helped to shape my perspective in the last 18 months. Love is more than a word, it isn't just a feeling. Love is action. Love takes work and perserverence, but love always wins.

On a side note, through this friend, I've also been challenged to step up my prayer life and my faith that God does answer prayers. I've got a lot to work on, I suppose!!