Labor prompted by Love

It's easy to justify laboring for those you love.  In practice, it's those we love who sometimes get the leftovers.  Ask yourself what you labor for.  Labor is usually associated with work, and if you have a demanding job or career then you may find that your labor is balanced more towards that rather than directly towards those you love.  Labor is good and God blesses us through it.  But ask yourself now: "is my labor prompted by love?"

In 2 Thessalonians 1:3, the letter draws a connection between a growing faith and an increasing love for one another within the community...  "We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing."  As your faith grows, does your love for your Christian brothers and sisters increase?  It should.  Also, the love you have and show for your family members - your spouse, your parents, your sons and daughters - may need to increase as well.  These are the relationships that are often the most strained.  Ask God to help you realize and see that need for growing in faith and the resulting increase in love for them.

Back to the original question about labor prompted by love: ask the Lord to help you to better understand the relationship between love and your labor.  Remember that labor (at home, at work, at church, in your family, in the mission field, throughout your day) always has some result.  If it is prompted by love, hopefully the result will be an increasing love for others... as you grow in faith.

"Grace and peace to you..."

-atg-