Life Of IntegrityЗагвар

"Peter's Love for God"

When I first got a car, I loved to drive people around. I would drive my friends to work, take friends on errands, and take them on trips to the big city. It was my pleasure to just drive them around. One day, on a particularly early Saturday, driving my friend to work, my car just sputtered out on the freeway. I looked down and my gas gauge was on empty. I was so busy driving my car that I forgot the thing that actually gives the car the power to run.

In John 21:15-19, Jesus has an exchange with Peter that seems oddly repetitive. He asks him three times if Peter loves Him. And three times Peter says “Duh!” Jesus replies with “Feed my lambs” and “Take care of my sheep” and finally, “Feed my sheep” again. You might think Peter must have been really dense to need this repeated three times. Maybe it’s something else. Jesus asked first if Peter loved Him. Jesus knew that in order to do any of these things, Peter first had to love God.

And not just a little bit. In order to love and take care of others, we need to be full of love for God, because that love is where all the power to love others comes from. Loving God is our fuel to love others. If we attempt to love others from our own strength, we will become depleted and our lives will stall like a car that has run out of gas.

So you have to ask yourself, what fuels you to love others? If we’re honest, there are many things that motivate our love for others. Maybe we want to be loved back; maybe we want recognition; maybe there are selfish motivations. It’s possible there is an agenda behind our love. Until we tap into the ultimate source of love, our motivations will have a selfish bent. As the Spirit of God has reign in our lives, He will align our motivations and fuel us to love others well.

What are your motivations behind helping others? Does helping others tend to drain you? If your heart is filled with love for the Lord, helping others becomes easy. Take some time to fill your tank this week with the love of God. Then, love others out of that experience.