Words & Actions
Which is more important?
Which is more important to you: what someone says, or what someone does?
I enjoy listening to the John Deloney Show podcast, and he frequently says “behavior is a language.” The reality of that phrase stuck with me. Actions are important! They reveal our true desires, beliefs, and intentions. Words just don’t carry the same weight most of the time.
1 John 3:18 says
Dear children, let’s not merely say we love each other, let us show the truth by our actions.
It’s easy to talk about love and how we love this person, or that group of people, or the whole world, but it takes a lot more effort to love one individual person with actions. Big talk and saying all the right things can become an excuse to love no one person in particular in any meaningful way.
Are you loving with action in your everyday life?
The kind of love that God gave to us, and the kind he calls us to give to others, is sacrificial love. It can feel like little parts of us die when we give it. When we lay down our wants and what we prefer in the moment in order to serve someone else. In order to make them the priority. (If you have children, you are familiar with this feeling.) I love my kids, and I would do anything for them, but in that moment when I finally sit down on the couch for a moment of quiet and I hear “Mommmmyyyyyyy!” from somewhere far away in the house, my reaction is not always joyful service. ;)
This love God calls his followers to is not pretty words and smiles and sunshine and roses. It’s work. Showing this love for one another takes effort. The word used in that verse indicates an undertaking of labor, a lifelong occupation. This is a choice, an intentional way to live. Sacrificial love that we are only able to give to others because of the love God first gave to us. We cannot do it in our own strength and ability.
We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19
Jesus gave everything for us, even when we were despising and rejecting him. We are the worst! It’s not easy, but following him means we are called to continue that love and extend it to the world who desperately needs it.
Questions to ponder / journal:
Do my actions show a sacrificial love for others in my life?
Am I harboring resentment in my heart towards others, or am I serving with joy?
What difficult person is God calling me to love sacrificially? Who in my life feels especially hard to love?
What steps can I take this week to better love others with actions?
Prayer:
God, sometimes it feels much easier to love with words than to love with actions. But, we know you call us to more than saying nice things. You call us to love authentically with our whole lives, and this love is shown through work and lived-out intentions. Would you teach us how to love like you do? To love others well, in order to make you seen and known in this world? Help us love our families, friends, and strangers we encounter, and that they would know you more because of our actions. I pray especially for the difficult people, the ones who are possibly crying out for love, but don’t act very lovable. Help us see them with your eyes and have compassionate hearts for those people, as you did for us when we were far from you. Give us patience and wisdom in how to love our families well, and thank you for this calling you’ve given us as your children. Most of all, thank you for your love that is always available to us.
Amen.