Come to play, not to watch

Do you ever feel like you should help people just because you think that God would want you to? I know that it is a common misconception among many people. We sometimes think that the key to heaven is about doing good and doing the right things so that you can make it there. It's not about that. We are also selfish. Sorry to say it, but we are. We want to live our lives the way that we want to. We don't do well with interruptions.

I read this next little section in the book Everybody Always this morning and fell in love with it.

"Jesus doesn't need our help with the hungry or the thirsty or sick or strange or naked or people in jails. He wants our hearts. He lets us participate, if we're willing, so we'll learn more about how He feels about us and how He feels about the people we may have been avoiding." - Bob Goff

Really think about that. Jesus doesn't need our help with those things and it's so easy to believe that He does. He wants your hearts. We GET to participate. We don't have to, we GET to. When we give Jesus our hearts, that is loving like Jesus would and that is the goal. To love like Jesus. 

Once Jesus has our hearts, He's got what He needs and what He wants. When He is our hearts, that is when we have the amazing opportunity to do the work of God. 

"When we get to heaven I would have thought Jesus would want to talk about our terrific organizations or what nice people we were or the positions we held. Maybe these things will come up, but I doubt it. Instead, He said He will want to know how we treated the ones who had failed the worst." - Bob Goff

We must come to play, not to watch. We can't be here to watch life go on, and see people who need love and not do anything about it. We have to do something about it and it the first step is giving your heart to God. You can't do good things out of self-glorfiation. It may look good in the eyes of others but the eyes of others don't matter. The eyes of God is what does. We need to play, we need to join the game, participate, give God our hearts and what will come from our lives will be unimaginable. 

Loving people the way Jesus did means living a life filled with constant interruptions. It's not easy and it never will be. It's worth it. 100% worth it. You can't just love someone when you want to, or expect yourself to be put into a situation where you will get to love. You have to be okay with having a life filled with interruptions. That's how Jesus lived his life. 

Remember...give Jesus your heart.