love must be sincere

Romans 12....I have read many times, offer our life as a living sacrifice.....and do not conform any longer to the pattern of the world but be renew your mind daily. Then I read vs. 9-21 and I was captured by vs 9 love must be sincere. Hate what is evil & cling to what is good.

You wouldn't think that we needed to be told or reminded that our love must be sincere but the more I thought about it if I am honest it can become natural to be fake. It is so easy to be negative & even let our dissatisfaction in life affect our interaction with one another. We allow our feelings of dislike or even hatred toward others get deep inside of us. This negative attitude then becomes the pattern of our lives. How I treat others shoud be sincere, no pretending, go along to get along, or what will they think of me......my love should be sincere, genuine and real.

Ephesians 5:1-2 - Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

A life of love is a fragrant life.....it smells good, feels good, brings joy and peace. You want to be around someone who is living a life of love. We are drawn to this kind of life, we crave it as well as we need it because it nourishes us. This is attractive.

Love must be sincere........live a life of love.........this has captured me, I am drawn to this kind of life. I want to pass this on to my girls. I want this to be my legacy. I need to keep reading Romans 12 and daily offer my life as a living sacrifice, Kurios, surrender, yielding authority to another.

I can't do this on my own because my human tendency is to protect myself, be skeptical or even have a negative bent. I tend to hold things too close and hold on too tightly. I don't like to fail, I want people to like me and I care what people think about me. My challenge is to daily hand it over to God and let His love flow through me so that I can love others with a sincere love.