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If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God's love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.
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My dear children, let's not just talk about love; let's practice real love.
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This is the only way we'll know we're living truly, living in God's reality.
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It's also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.
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And friends, once that's taken care of and we're no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we're bold and free before God!
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We're able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we're doing what he said, doing what pleases him.
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Again, this is God's command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command.
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As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us.