FEBRUARY 02 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#02 “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you …and if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?” (Matthew 5:46-47)

 FEBRUARY 02  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   JQ#02  “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you …and if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?” (Matthew 5:46-47)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer   

JESUS, Glory and Honor to the King of kings and Lord of lords. You are the Creator and man is but dust under Your Holy Feet. Yet You have made us heirs to the kingdom as we accept Your Invitation to join the Father and we become sons and daughters in the Family of God — to God be the Glory Forever! Jesus, You know my heart, search it and know my desire to have You draw our entire family to You. I know full well that only You can accomplish Salvation! Lord keep my heart burdened for the family!”     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS is Teaching us to be concerned about the needs of others and the greatest need everyone has is “Love” — The above prayer was written 16 years ago as I was greatly burdened for my oldest son Robbie who had started down his own path in the world and was heading into darkness. He had no job, no future, and no ambition, only raw talent without purpose which is more dangerous and destructive than it is advantageous. This study in the JESUS Questions has already taught me many new things but most importantly it has highlighted and clarified in my mind some of the lessons that I know now that God had intended for me when I started the “365 Prayers for Jesus” in the year 2000. I did not know what the outcome would be when I committed to starting my day by writing a prayer to Jesus and praying for the family every day for an entire year which I accomplished first in 2004. I mention this during our study of “The JESUS Questions” because I did not know what I would learn or accomplish when I started the “365 Prayers for Jesus” but there has been so much fruit from the 2004 year of starting my day by writing the Name “JESUS” that it is still impacting my life and I am sure that there are new lessons and new blessings in answering “The JESUS Questions”! The prayer above is a prayer that I wrote in 2004 that was especially meaningful to me in 2016 because of the new “The JESUS Questions” project and the impact that it is having in my family.  It is not a random coincidence that I would read a prayer written in 2004 that still has so much relevance to my working on JQ#02. Yesterday I wrote that the context around JQ#02 was all focused on understanding the “Love of God” and how important “Love” is to God and then challenged the reader to consider answering JQ#02 which is 4 Questions effectively asking 1 Question.  God really wants us to stop and think about our answer so He asks the same question 4 different ways, which immediately reminds me of the story when Jesus appeared to Peter after the Resurrection and JESUS asked Peter three repetitive questions in John 21:15-17. The 3 Questions Jesus asked Peter can be translated as “Do you love Me?” asked from three different words used for “Love” with each one carrying successively more weight on the commitment to “Love God!”. My prayer in 2004 was a result or “fruit” of when I was first learning how to be a good follower and God had me looking down the path of “His Love”. In this 2004 prayer, I had prayed with the love of the best father I could be for my son Robbie at that point in my “Spiritual” journey and my heart was turned also to praying that our family would be healed. Since that first “family” prayer in 2004 I have prayed every day for our family and God has blessed and healed our family and God’s Grace has brought us all back together — we have a “Family Night” EVERY TUESDAY NIGHT —  and the entire family gathers for our weekly Family Meal — God is Good! Tomorrow in this blog I will try to put an answer to JQ#02 which is effectively asking each of us to consider where and how are we directing our “Love”? God is always Teaching  us about “Love”, and in God’s Heart “LOVE” is ALWAYS about GIVING TO OTHERS —“Love” is not “Love” if it is not given away! Stop and think where you would be today if at some point in life instead of feeling hurt you had chosen to “Love” the one hurting you instead of being the victim and having your own feelings hurt! Selfishness about “Love” will let your personal hurt drive you away, causing a separation in the relationship, but if you “Give Love to your attacker” you will find healing of relationships instead of hurt. Hold that thought as you read JQ#02 - Matthew 5:46-47.