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by Rick Warren

Love is something you do. Do you really love someone? Let’s see how you act toward that person. You show love by what you do, not just by what you feel.

Love is more than attraction and more than arousal. It’s also more than sentimentality, like so many of today’s songs suggest. By this standard, is love dead when the emotion is gone? No, not at all. Because love is an action; love is a behavior.

Over and over again, in the Bible, God commands us to love each other. And you can’t command an emotion. If I told you “Be sad!” right now, you couldn’t be sad on cue. Just like an actor, you can fake it, but you’re not wired for your emotions to change on command. Have you ever told a little kid, “Be happy!” I’m trying, daddy!

If love were just an emotion, then God couldn’t command it. But love is something you do. It can produce emotion, but love is an action.

The Bible says, “Let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions” (1 John 3:18 NLT). We can talk a good act: “I love people.” But do we really love them? Do you really love them? Our love is revealed in how we act toward them.

But there will be glory and honor and peace from God for all who do good—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile.

Romans 2:10 (New Living Translation)

But glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Romans 2:10 (New King James Version)

But if you embrace the way God does things, there are wonderful payoffs, again without regard to where you are from or how you were brought up. Being a Jew won’t give you an automatic stamp of approval.

Romans 2:10 (The Message)

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

Ephesians 2:8-9 (New Living Translation)

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

Ephesians 2:8-9 (New International Version)

God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

Ephesians 2:8-9 (The Message)

Words satisfy the mind as much as fruit does the stomach;
good talk is as gratifying as a good harvest.

Proverbs 18:20 (The Message)

From the fruit of his mouth a man’s stomach is filled;
with the harvest from his lips he is satisfied.

Proverbs 18:20 (New International Version)

Wise words satisfy like a good meal;
the right words bring satisfaction.

Proverbs 18:20 (New Living Translation)

That is what the Scriptures mean when they say,

1 Corinthians 2:9 (New Living Translation)

But as it is written:

“ Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

1 Corinthians 2:9 (New King James Version)

That’s why we have this Scripture text:

1 Corinthians 2:9 (The Message)

Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord,
for our hope is in you alone.

Psalm 33:22 (New Living Translation)

May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD,
even as we put our hope in you.

Psalm 33:22 (New International Version)

Love us, God, with all you’ve got—
that’s what we’re depending on.

Psalm 33:22 (The Message)

by Max Lucado

“You must change and become like little children. Otherwise, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 18:3

Bedtime is a bad time for kids. No child understands the logic of going to bed while there is energy left in the body or hours left in the day.

My children are no exception. A few years ago, after many objections and countless groans, the girls were finally in their gowns, in their beds, and on their pillows. I slipped into the room to give them a final kiss. Andrea, the five-year-old, was still awake, just barely, but awake. After I kissed her, she lifted her eyelids one final time and said, “I can’t wait until I wake up.”

Oh, for the attitude of a five-year-old! That simple uncluttered passion for living that can’t wait for tomorrow. A philosophy of life that reads, “Play hard, laugh hard, and leave the worries to your father.” A bottomless well of optimism flooded by a perpetual spring of faith. Is it any wonder Jesus said we must have the heart of a child before we can enter the kingdom of heaven?