You act and speak out of the overflow of your heart. Your heart produces action.

Think about this… how is that a person in your biological family or a person you’re in an intimate relationship with can be the hardest to extend grace to… to love the way Christ loved us? Why are expectations for family higher, thus disappointments are too? Mothers, brothers, etc are also a part of God’s creation, thus we (Christians) ought to treat them with the love of Christ in grace and truth. After all, they are our most sensitive audience. I say “ought to” because 1 John 3:16, in reference to our responsibilities as a Christian. We are responsible for loving from the overflow because we’ll never be able to try hard enough or be disciplined enough to love well when it comes from ourselves. Which is why it is essential that we love God 1^st. So, as repeatedly noted throughout the entire Bible, our first responsibility is to love Christ because without that there is no overflow, and if there is no overflow, then God’s love isn’t living in us, and if that’s not present, then it’s not truly love. It’s veiled manipulation and addiction (that can only disappoint and destroy).

If our actions come from the overflow of our heart and our heart is to be constantly engaged in discovering and loving God, then its all about grace in truth because that is what God is all about. Practically speaking, this means I take this perspective: I am completely undeserved but, because of grace, I have been freely given everything I have and everything I am, so I can freely give … especially by LOVING WITHOUT EXPECTATIONS OR EXCEPTIONS. Now that’s freedom and that’s fun!!

Sometimes I like repeating things (like grace and it’s application) because they are very good. Plus, practically speaking (especially with the chaos and tense dynamics that often present themselves during the holidays), the capitalized and bolded statement is worth repeating and pursuing as the Spirit reveals. God first loved us, so we love Him first… then His love abundantly meets our needs and we are freed to love from the overflow of His love. This is why we love God first. He is the only One who can bear the weight of our hopes, expectations, dreams, and fears. Once we cast those onto Him and trust that He is good, faithful, and infinitiely more creative and intelligent than we are, we are freed to live a sacrificial life motivated by pure love. Then, with God’s love abounding in us and us abiding in Him, we will naturally extend grace because that is the heart of the Father.

It is God’s will for our life to love Him first, with everything always, then we will see that He is faithful to meet our needs, which is when we’ll be able to love others and ourselves without expectations and exceptions. But it must happen in this order, or else we’ll be tempted to withhold love and grace because they don’t deserve it and we feel justified in only giving to the amount that some one has earned… but thinking like that discards the fact that the Lord of the universe stepped down from constant adoration and praise to step into our lives and rescue us through an unparalleled and unfathomable act of grace as motivated by the pure love of the Father. So seeing it all began with grace, we can see that it all ends with grace.

You can’t truly love another or yourself unless Christ’s love abides in you. Christ’s love can’t abide in you unless you’ve accepted grace. You can’t accept grace until you humble yourself and see that you haven’t earned anything and that you don’t deserve what you have, but rather, God has given you everything to steward until He returns because it is His, even you are His. So, it is with this perspective that I re-enter the holiday madness, the family hurt, and the spiteful comments, because we ought to love as Christ loved us, but we can’t do that until we are overcome with His grace and love.

As Luke says, it’s all about the condition of your heart. A man speaks and acts out of the overflow of his heart… so this holiday season, join me in taking a meticulous inventory of your actions and words to see what they reveal about the condition, desires, and longings of your heart.

In this holiday and for the duration of our lives, let’s commit ourselves to knowing and loving God, then from the overflow of our refreshed and purified hearts, let’s love without expectations or exceptions, let’s love like Christ by having pure motives and keeping a gospel-centered, grace saturated, Godly perspective.

Your hearts produce your actions.

What are your actions, speech, and thoughts revealing about your heart?

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