Good Intentions

Loving people is more than an emotion. If our minds don't support our emotions in caring for others, then our feelings of love will thin out into just good intentions. Loving others is often inconvenient. We need the strength of our mind to help solidify our commitment to other people. Otherwise, we will become one of the multitudes reciting, "I meant to do something, but I just never got around to it." Each of us might do it differently, but we are all called to invest in the lives of others. After church today, I was listening to some of the hardships a friend of ours is facing, and I thought of this verse:
"Consider one another in order to stir up love and good works." Hebrews 10:24
This friend just recently went in on a partnership deal to buy, own, and renovate a manufactured housing community. Most of the people that are living there are doing so in the poorest of conditions. Not only because of the place itself, but because of the ways in which they choose to live and how their community has been cared for in the past. As he described the situation to me, I listened and prayed silently to myself. In his frustration, I could see his good intentions being twarted by anger and disappointment.
He asked, "where am I supposed to even start, there's so much to deal with? "
When Jesus saw the multitude, He was moved with compassion for them. Why? Because they were lost. He desired that they receive freedom and deliverance from whatever troubled them. We too, have to desire to see that same deliverance for those we are trying to help. We can care for others intentionally. Maybe they are struggling with issues that we have never had experience with before, but if we purpose in our hearts to love them and care for them because we desire to, we can understand their situation from a different perspective. By gaining this understanding, we also gain access. Access to new ministry, people, and most importantly, God's grace.