it's not about how much, but how many

For me, one of the most difficult things as a believer is that I have always believed that to be obedient to Christ, I must go out and love every single person. I have always felt like I had to live that way, and I have never done a good job with it. Why? It's a bit exhausting.  

I felt like the only way to show others Christ's love, I had to go out and love on people I have no relationship with. No wonder I don't feel like I have done a good job with it. 

I read a verse, and understood it more clearly than I ever have this morning, and it completely changes everything. 

"No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." (1 John 4:12)

What John means when he is writing this to us, is it's not how many people we should love, but how much we love the people that we already know. 

Who else needed to hear that this morning?

Before you get carried away, I want to be clear, just because this is what John meant when he wrote this doesn't mean we don't have to love others. We still need to love everybody. But are focus really shouldn't be on how many people we need to be loving, but on how much we need to love the people that we already know.

Our job is to love faithfully the people God has given us to love, whether there are two or two hundred of them. I challenge you to think about your life. Who is in it that you feel like you need to love for a reason and a purpose? A coach will love his family, and his team, a pastor will love his family and his or her congregation, a teacher will love their family and their students, a financial advisor will love their family and also their clients, etc.

I've been bent out of shape my entire life, and I hope with this post, God will bring you to the same revelation he just brought me to. I also encourage you to not take for granted the people in your life who are the closest to you because they are the ones that we can be and should be loving the most.