All you need is love (and eggnog)

If you struggle to find opportunities to talk about Jesus, you better not shout and you better not cry, because an opportunity is coming to town. 😂

Make the most of Christmas this year by speaking and living out the love of Jesus this Christmas.

It’s hard to quantify what love actually is, yet it’s something we all experience. So whether it’s talking about love, living out love, or both—embracing a lifestyle of outwardly focused love will help you share the love of Jesus this Christmas.

Christmas is a season where love comes into full focus. It’s a time of year where we put aside our regular priorities and give attention to the people we love the most. Our emotional mirrors are replaced with windows to see the needs of others more clearly.

There are two key Bible verses that highlight the nature of God’s love. In John 3:16 it says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Put simply, God loves the whole world. God’s love does not discriminate. It’s not restricted to a certain group of people or just reciprocated to those who love Him.

Romans 5:8 reveals the unconditional nature of God's love: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” This verse tells us that not only does God’s love extend out to every single person, but He also shows His love towards you regardless of what you’ve done.

This Christmas, let love be a motivator for you to both speak out God’s love and to live out God’s love.

Speak out God’s love by opening up conversations about love. Talk about a time when you experienced God’s unconditional love. Explain how Jesus himself was a gift of love to the world.

Live out God’s love by taking intentional actions that prioritize the needs of others above your own. Replace your personal mirror with a window. Put together some Christmas hampers for the people in your community who are in need. Go out and sing some carols in the community. Write letters of appreciation to the people in your street. The options are endless.

This year, make the most of Christmas by speaking and living out love in your community. Decide now how you’re going to do it, make a plan, and see what God does through you this Christmas season.

BIBLE VERSES

1 John 4:7-12 – Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Romans 5:7-8 – For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 – Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.