Day 4 - Love Thy Neighbor

Matthew 22:36-40
“This is the first and great commandment. “And the second is like unto it. Thou
shall love thy neighbor as thyself.
Notice especially that Jesus says, “Love your neighbor as yourself. “This means that if we are to love our neighbors unconditionally and generously, we will need to love ourselves that way too!
Our common welfare must come first! It is so easy to go about life checking off the things that we need to sustain our individual wellbeing. The other side of the coin is to get so caught up in doing for others that we lose ourselves. True unity is expressed in the biblical verse, “Love thy neighbor as thyself”. This speaks to an approach to life that equally serves our own wellness and the good of others close to us and beyond our circle. After all, we cannot transmit to others what we are lacking for ourselves. We must learn how to take care of self (self-love) and celebrate being alone. Being alone, does not mean being lonely. We are so deeply connected as a race of people through our Heavenly Father’s Divine design that oftentimes we don’t see the magic of how the whole is being unified when we extend a helping hand, when we pray for one another, when we find reasons to smile or when we take a self-care rest day. We can be assured that our goodness to ourselves and others has ripple effects bringing us all together as one body with many parts interdependent of each other for the common good!
Prayer
Lord, thank you for loving us enough to give your one and only Son so that our sins can be forgiven. Help us, Lord God through the Holy Spirit to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We anticipate as we fast and pray in unison that the Holy Spirit will help us demonstrate this love in unimaginable ways. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
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