Without Agenda

Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.

—Romans 12:10 (NIV)

Love. Be devoted. Have compassion. Honor the need of someone else as more significant than my own. This morning I read this verse and wonder if God sees this in me. The Holy Spirit calls me to love the way Jesus loved me. 

“Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others,” Paul wrote. “Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ had” (Philippians 2:3-5, NLT). What was Jesus’ attitude toward me? He showed me that I was worth His life.

“Love each other with genuine affection,” Romans 12:10 reads in the New Living Testament reads. “Take delight in honoring each other.” Do I honor others without expectation? Without an agenda? When I have no plan, I find joy and delight in what I share. I’m not grading someone’s response and looking for results. Jesus gave me His love. I didn’t have to measure up to receive it. 

Only I allow the Holy Spirit to examine the motive of my heart and continually change me. It is not my place to question anyone else’s. Only I let God renew my mind. I can't change how someone else thinks. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. I can only love with the grace that Jesus unselfishly gave me. My life is not about me and what I think I need to see in someone else. My life is about how Jesus can love through me.

“Jesus, I can’t do your work in someone’s heart. Only you, Holy Spirit, can. Peace is knowing it’s not my responsibility. It’s yours.”

© 2019 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2019/09/without-agenda.html