Serving Others

This coming week I have been giving the amazing oppourtunity to serve the community of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I will be doing some flood relief work for the community with a group of other volunteers and I am SUPER pumped about it!

Just like any other mission I like to mentally prepare for the experience and God has really been laying two things on my heart. Number one we serve to love. 1 John 4:19 says, "We love because he first loved us." and as a reminder his love is HUGE. John 3:16 describes his love, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." I say amen to that!

So I have also been thinking about what this love needs to look like and I found two verses that really spell it out. 1 John 3:18 says "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." With ACTIONS and in TRUTH!!!! That to me means that you need to live it out all the time. Serve everyone as if you were serving God. Love what you are doing it and love genuinely! Love when it's easy AND when it's hard. Love until your heart hurts, and then take it a step further and love beyond that.

I plan on loving some people in Iowa this coming week and I encourage you to love on people too. You don't have to travel states away to do it. Their are people in need everywhere. Some needs are large and others are small. So meet people where they are and help them however you are able to. Small scale or large scale, love is love, and it is always the answer.