So, looking back to Monday’s post, how do we maximize our opportunities for Jesus to show up unexpectedly? Perhaps by striking, hard, at the first fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love.” Nothing so immobilizes Satan and activates Jesus as a commitment to transcend our innate self-centeredness by opening our lives to love. The more we love, the more open we are to the God who loves. But that goes against our basic nature.
Paul himself agreed in speaking about followers of Jesus, “For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 2:21). Our default is to look out for #1, no one else will, correct? We love ourselves, and often value others to the degree they benefit us. But what does love mean? The romantic feeling depicted by hands held in the shape of a heart? Not at all.
Love means to act in the best interests of those we love, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Or, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” (John 3:16). God’s love was shown in action—doing for people what they couldn’t do for themselves.
So, how do we prune and fertilizer our spiritual tree to promote the fruit of love? Pretty clear to say but more difficult to do, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4).
Adventing Part One
Think of sometimes you acted unselfishly in love. What spiritual impact did you experience? Think of sometimes when you struggled to act unselfishly. What spiritual impact did you experience? What one or two acts can you do to increase your love before Christmas?