If I have an account on all social media sites, subscribe to blogs written by spiritual leaders, eat only local food, and declutter my home based on Christian and anti-consumerism principles, but have not love? These verses beautifully clarify that even justice-seeking responses to God’s amazing love are hollow if we think grace is payment for these actions. God’s grace arrives in our heart daily, unasked and unearned, and we fully rely on God. Without this faith, we will burn out, even when seeking the kingdom. Our call is to respond to, not pay for, this gift in love, made known in our relationships. We must fully rely on God for everything, including grace, love and the world’s healing.
May our love not be busy love, nor forceful love, but a patient love towards ourselves and others, insisting on God’s way, not our own.
O Creator of love, please quiet my mind and tongue today; quiet my striving. Help me to bask fully in your grace. May your love so fill me that it overflows and falls upon those I relate to this day: the river and raven, the really nice and the rude. Amen. — LCS