“Where is His Love Needed Most “is a question that I’ve been pondering this week. After reading James 1:27 that reads, “ Religion that is pure and and undefiled before God the father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” It got me thinking how easy it is to focus on the latter part of that scripture-while missing the first part. How we keep ourself unstained from the world is by being washed by the blood of Jesus. We read His words and our minds become renewed. Time in prayer with Jesus transforms who we are. The Holy Spirit is always there reminding us of all truth, leading us down the path God has for us and comforting us when things are hard. We begin to recognize what sin is and turn away from it because we want to be near God. Our hearts are transformed.
I think in the process of becoming unstained we might have forgotten the first part of that scripture though-the first part requires action from us.The Bible tells us that faith without works is dead according to James 2. Works is putting what we are learning from Jesus into action. Jesus was a servant to all. Being great in the kingdom requires us to serve others and to look out after others in their affliction. Sounds a lot like Jesus right? Maybe since Jesus has the part of keeping us unstained covered-by His blood-we should turn our hearts to noticing more of the "hands on” piece of the puzzle. If we are to visit those in need -like the orphans and widows of Jesus’ time-then that’s going to require us to start looking past ourselves to the needs of others. The places we avoid the most are probably the places where His love is needed most. So if Jesus went to the sinners shouldn’t we do the same? Not to join them but to transform them. To introduce them to the love of Jesus. After all, those that don’t know Jesus are exactly where His love is needed most. Let’s learn to serve others in our own little world and then from there begin to ask God if He has any special assignments to go where He is needed most. If we are asking the question, “Where is His love needed most?” He will bring the answer.
Let’s start in our own hearts-what have we gone through? Is there a place that we have not allowed Jesus to touch? What about the difficult person in our family that has all the issues and takes up all our time? The person at work that is going through that traumatic divorce that Jesus keeps telling us to share the gospel with? As, we begin to step out in faith and get healing in ourselves -this opens up doors for us to help others. One step at a time. Who knows where Jesus will send us when we ask this question!
In Him,
Heather Bradley
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