Love Acts - Martin Wiles

Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. Luke 10:34 NLT

What she saw, she couldn’t believe.

When she was a single Mom, my daughter struggled when things broke down. As they did one Sunday morning when she loaded herself and the boys into the car to head for church. When she turned the ignition, nothing happened. She knew enough about cars to know the trouble was probably her battery. She had bought the car used and had not replaced the battery in the three years she had owned the car.

Wanting to go to church, she called a work partner who attended the same church and asked if she could get her and the boys. She did. Then she called another work friend and asked if her dad could look at the car that afternoon. She said he’d be glad to.

That afternoon, her friend’s dad pulled up, hooked up the jumping cables, jumped off her car, and left. My daughter let it run a few minutes, turned it off, and went inside—hoping it would crank the next morning. An hour later, her friend’s dad showed back up at her door and asked for her car keys.

Thinking he was going to check her car over again to make sure it was the battery, she went back inside and continued enjoying her afternoon. But later, wondering what was taking him so long, she looked outside to see him installing a new battery in her car. When he returned her keys, she cried.

Two weeks later, my daughter sent me a short video of her dryer making an awful noise. The kind it makes when it’s no longer working. She put a post on Facebook, asking if anyone had a used dryer they wanted to sell, and waited for a response. My boss’s wife came to the rescue. They had just moved into a new home and bought new appliances. She had a used dryer my daughter could have. I rounded up a truck, along with a friend to help, and we delivered and hooked up her new-to-her dryer.

Love acts happen all the time. We just tend to hear about the bad more than we do the good. Jesus told of one love act when he talked about a Samaritan who stopped to help a man who had been robbed and left for dead. Two others had passed him by—in too much of a hurry to help.

When we love God with all our hearts, we’ll want to love others, too. And when we love others, we’ll want to perform love acts for them. God will give us opportunities, but we must slow down long enough to see them. Otherwise, life’s love acts will pass us by. If we let God know we’re open to doing love acts, He’ll send them our way—along with the resources for us to do them. After all, He controls our resources, just as He does the love act opportunities.

Our part involves trusting God, so we won’t limit ourselves. We’re never too old, too busy, or too financially strapped to do something kind for someone else. Many kind acts require no money at all.

Why not pray for God to send some love act opportunities your way?

Prayer: Father, send us the opportunities and the desire to do love acts for others.

Tweetable: Are you doing love acts? 

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