How to Prove Your Love

This Sunday we will celebrate the birth of Christ.  We will enjoy family and friends and festivities.  And we will GIVE! And RECEIVE!  And all of this is good, but is most blessed when done in remembrance of God's greatest gift: Our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Just because we celebrate the season however, doesn't mean we celebrate the Savior.  One day of merriment living does not wipe out a years worth of miserly giving. If you really want to celebrate, if you really want to enjoy this season of the Savior, then learn to excel - always - in this gracious ministry of giving.  The Apostle Paul said it like this,

"Since you excel in so many ways...I want you to excel also in this gracious ministry of giving.  I am not saying you must do it...this is one way to prove your love is real."  2 Cor. 8:7-8 (NLT) 

How? Give real love, abundant time, and heartfelt devotion to your family.  Take time to "be" together and not just exist in the same house.  Give to God because you want to prove your love is real. This is proved as you serve God with your time, your talents, and your treasures.  Or, to put it as Jesus did, with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind...(Luke 10:27). Not because you must do it but because you want to prove it.  You want the work of God to be built up, to increase, and to go out to others.   

Why? Because you love what Jesus loves and Jesus loves people.  Jesus loves your family.  Jesus died for every person and has given us the charge, the privilege of telling them this Good News!  They are the reason He came. We are the reason He came. 

So this Christmas, prove your love is real by not only giving to one another, but giving your best gift to Christ of all that you are and have.