Love Yourself

Dear One:
I can see that you desire to know more about Me. Every day you seek Me and My ways. Unfortunately, you believe that you aren't seeking Me because you are not reading the Word as much as you think you should. You often put yourself down because of this.

Child, reading the Word does not make you a doer of the Word. There are many who read about Me and My ways, and still they are not changed by what they read. They are forgetful hearers. They deceive themselves because they are not doers of the Word (James 2:22,25). They read about Me--but they don't know Me.

If you would look within yourself and analyze what you do and why you do it, you would find more of Me--for you see, you and I are alike in so many ways. I am a giver and you are a giver.

I always give to supply a person's deepest need. When they brought a man sick of the palsy to Me, I immediately met his greatest need when I said to him, "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins will be forgiven thee' (Matthew 9:2). That was his greatest need, to be forgiven. I met his spiritual need first. Then I told him, "Arise, take up your bed and walk." This met his physical need.

You have always been a giver. You give your possessions and money to people who are in need. The world focuses on this kind of giving, but I have noticed that you go further and give of yourself to all you meet. You give to everyone whose life touches yours. You daily give your time, your prayers, your love to those around you.

It is this type of giving that sets you apart from the world. You always give in such a way that you touch the 'real' need in a person's life. Often the need you meet in a person's life isn't even recognized as a need--but you are sensitive to the needs of others.

You have so much compassion that you respond in love even to what they will need in the future. That's what prompts you to write a letter of encouragement to a friend even before dicouragement sets in. That's what prompts you to send ten dollars to someone even before they have a need to pay a bill. That's what prompts you to send a gift to someone so that when it arrives three to five days later, it picks them up out of the doldrums. It is that compassion within you that does the giving.

Love,
God

(From Love Letters from God--Affirmations for Your Soul, by Bonnie G. Schluter)