Leviticus 25:14 And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour’s hand, ye shall not oppress one another:

Wall Street will tell you that you will never get rich with that attitude. That is the ruler of the air speaking. Satan wants you to believe that this passage is meant to keep you poor. Not at all, this passage is directly linked to love thy neighbor. It isn’t about finance. It is about relationship.

The world does not operate in fairness. Someone has to take advantage of someone else in order to gain riches. That is the capitalist market. Let the buyer beware. Buy, sell or trade it does not matter, the market will only invest if they see the potential for gain. We all know that and we have been told our whole life, nobody gets nothing for nothing. There is no such thing as free in the world.

That is true of the world but what about God’s Kingdom? That realm is not of this world. We do not get to enter into that Kingdom without accepting a Free Will Offering. The only thing that will transition you from this world into that glorious kingdom is by accepting that everything you have been told and believe is not true. You can receive something of enormous value absolutely free. For those of us that have done that, we believe it to be true. For those who have not, letting go of that worldly truth is a hard thing to shake.

I have friends who absolutely believe that there is a God, not a little g god but the One God. They have seen evidence that is in their view indisputable proof of God’s existence, yet cannot shake the issue of that Free Will Offering. So ingrained into his personal experience is the issue of buy and sell and that everyone has a motive that he will not accept that free gift without understanding the bottom line, what does God gain.

Then I have to say God is in the penny market and taking worthless stock and investing in it. He invests Himself in the product and turns it into something of great value. And that is true.

1 Corinthians 13:5a Doth not behave itself unseemly

Let me begin by saying love is a behavior. Maybe you have a memory of your mother saying “Behave yourself.” She caught you in a behavior that needed to change, so she was correcting you. I get it.

Last night we had a profound discussion about who we are in Christ and out of that conversation came a central point of behavior. “How can I love another if I do not love myself?” It wasn’t the first time I’ve heard the thought. I slept on it and this is what came to me this morning.

We are what we practice, we are what we see ourselves doing. It is not unlike a child’s attitude about himself, that image of self. We place children in activities to allow them to practice. They do not start out being dancers, or ball players, or musicians. Even the most gifted have to practice the fundamentals. Practice builds experience, experience builds confidence, confidence acts.

Why should charity be any different? You will not see yourself as being charitable if you do not act. Nothing I am saying is about being charitable, it is about how you feel about yourself. I can encourage you all day long but only you can practice those things that tells yourself you have changed.

No one asks for prayer to be more loving without first seeing in themselves a behavior which is not in line with how love acts as it is described in 1 Corinthians 13. This is how love behaves. I do not do that, so I am not a loving person. They only way to change that self-image is practice. You may not be good at it to begin with but trust me, God honors effort.

Read and understand how love acts in the love chapter of the bible and know how to act. That is the first step. Recognize acts that tell yourself to behave, that is step two. Change the behavior, that is step three. With practice you will grow more confident in your ability to love and then love will grow in your heart for others out of who you are in Christ.