Dec 29

Love and Faithfulness

"Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablets of your heart." Proverbs 3:3

During this season, when the old year winds down and the New Year approaches, many people stop and take a long hard look at what they have accomplished during the previous year and where they wish to go in the future. In the life of a Christian, there should be some constants. These goals never change from year to year; our desire to be more Christlike and to let love and faithfulness move us toward that goal. These qualities should never leave us; they should be hanging right there around our neck for the world to see. Even more than being visible to all with whom we come in contact, they need to be written on the tablets of our heart. They must be the motivating factors in our lives. Being motivated by love and the desire to be faithful to our LORD will help us to reach any goal we might set for ourselves in the year ahead. When these qualities are written upon the tablets our heart, they cannot be erased. They are etched in, permanently engraved, written in stone, as it were. Love cannot be a fleeting thing in our lives. Love is not a feeling, as the world believes it to be. Love is a motivating force. Love is a choice. When we choose love over feelings, we live as Christ would have us to live. Sometimes the choice of love will cost us; it cost Christ his life. When we choose love despite the cost, our faithfulness will be evident to all around us. As this New Year approaches, let us be more determined than ever to let love and faithfulness hang around our necks for the world to see; but more than that, let them be our motivating force in life. May love and faithfulness be part of the very fabric of our heart.

Father, how we thank you for the example of true love that you have given to us! Thank you for choosing to love us even though it cost you your Son. As your Son hung on that cross, and men spat on him and called him names, you probably were not feeling particularly kindly toward them, but you chose to love them anyway. Thank you for choosing love. Help us to follow in your example and that of dear Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus. Help us to choose love, not just in the easy times, but especially when it will cost us. Make love and faithfulness such a part of who we are that it cannot be taken away. Engrave them on our hearts that they might motivate all that we do and say. In this way may we bring glory and honor to your name! Amen