Love With An Agenda

Have you ever loved someone with an agenda? I have preached and heard that we shouldn't love people with an agenda.  After contemplating that more I have come to notice that it is said more as a crutch for not sharing the gospel.

Sometimes it takes us having an agenda to get involved in a persons life.

When my wife and I first met...I had an agenda. I wanted her to like me. I wanted her to be charmed only by me. I wanted nothing else than to have her as mine. So I planned, purposed, and proposed. My plan was simple. Communicate with her as much as possible. We had a long distance relationship so I was going to write, IM, email, talk on the phone, do whatever I had to in order to stay at the front of her mind. My purpose was to win her heart. I did that by driving approx 2,000 miles to see her. Every moment I was with her I drank it in so I could pour out my own affection toward her. After several trips (not all by car) she moved to the city I lived in. About two months later I proposed. It all started with an agenda.

If I didn't have an agenda I could have lost out on the very best person I have ever had in my life.

I don't need to approach a person as another spiritual conquest. However, I need to have an agenda to open a pathway for people who don't have a relationship with God to encounter Him. If I don't because I don't want to love a person with an agenda I could very well miss out on daily opportunities to tell people I should connect with about Jesus.

People we come into contact with deserve to hear about Jesus. We cannot fail in this rudimentary portion of our faith.

Jesus didn't say "Love people if you like them" or "Just tell the people you like about Me." One thing He did say that should cut us to the heart is:  "Why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord' and do not do what I say?"

You don't love a person well if they don't have a relationship with God and you remain silent.

Love with an agenda because some people don't love at all.