Abounding

“Now may God himself, our Father, and our Lord Jesus
direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase
and abound in love for one another and for all.”

1 Thes. 3:11-12

If I were to ask you, “What is your heart filled with?” what would you say? Would it be filled with hope? Joy? Peace? Envy? What would you say your heart is filled with? Maybe it is a mixture of all of the above. St. Paul encourages the Thessalonians to “abound in love for one another and for all.” Above all else, it is love that must fill our hearts, and this love must not be all self-love, it must be love for others — those whom we love and care about and also those whom we do not know too well (for one another and for all). The first is easy, but I think the second one is a bit harder. To love those who love you is much easier than loving someone who we do not know or even someone who gets on our nerves or someone whom we do not like or who does not like us. But, if we are to truly receive the word of God and have it take root in our hearts, we must love them all. To love does not necessarily mean to be nice. Love has nothing to do with niceness. But it does have something to do with kindness.

One does not need to really love or have a genuine care or concern to be nice to someone. “Oh he’s the just being nice.” Sometimes we care too much about being nice that we compromise the truth. That is not love. True love always communicates the truth. So, being nice does not automatically mean to love, but to be kind, to want another person’s good (even though it may cause discomfort and pain) is to love them. Perhaps we can see this in our own relationships. When we care for someone there are times when we need to tell them things that are not easy to hear, but they need to hear them. Praying about those things and having the courage to say them — that is love, that is kindness, and that is what Christians must do.

Today I encourage you to spend a few minutes thinking about with what does your heart abound. Invite the Lord to sit with you and look at those things. Remember that He does not shame you or think less of you because of any unkind things you may harbor in your heart. Rather, He wants to touch them, bring them to light, purify them, and free you from those chains that hold you down. Allow the Lord to fill your hearts with love, true love that is rooted in Him, love that extends to all peoples, including those who hurt us and those whom we do not like very much.