Jan 19

We should not be too hard on Martha. She really did love Jesus and tried hard to show it. She simply fell into a trap we all commonly fall into: getting priorities mixed up. For serving someone is indeed evidence that we love that person. But it is not the highest level of love, nor the highest indication of that love.

Our society today is saturated with psychology and teaching on meeting people's needs. Even the church is full of this emphasis. And, of course, we do need to meet people's needs if we are to love them.

But in reality, we often would end up helping them even more if we would focus instead on them themselves, the person they really are. Meeting needs should follow naturally from meeting them, the inner person.

We show love to others when we help them. We show a deeper love when that desire to help springs from genuine concern for who they are. We want to know all about them, pay attention to them, want to be with them. And, perhaps the highest honor of all that we can give them: we want to be like them. That is what makes a small child's love for a parent so precious to that parent: the knowledge that this child wants to be like me.

Do you love Jesus? Do you want to be like him?

Scripture for today: Proverbs 20:11
Thought for today: True love loves the person, not what that person can do for me.
Prayer for today: Lord Jesus, may I truly love you, not simply seek your gifts.

JAN 19