We are called to Follow Jesus. Jesus is the shephard, we are His flock. We are to hear His voice and follow Him. We are called to follow in His footsteps and walk as He walked.  We are to imitate Him and become like Him. 

Jesus came here in the flesh as the expressed image of the Father. That means HE is Love. We are to imitate Him, and become love.

In order to imitate Him you need to open your eyes and begin to see things from His perspective. You need to look at how He lived His life and understand what He was trying to do.  You then need to figure out how to apply that understanding to your life. As you do this, you will get to “know Him” and He will get to know you.

He provides very direct instructions in how to do this in a robust way: Deny Yourself, Pick up your cross daily, and follow Him.

Deny yourself means to set aside your own self-conscious identity and cut off the selfish agendas that drive us. We need to realize this life is not all about ME and my ego, it is about allowing God to operate through ME to flow His love to others. God’s love is perfected when it flows through us to others. Self-centeredness gets in the way of this flow, it diverts and hords God’s love in ourselves rather than letting it flow through us to others. We need to flow God’s love through us, you can dable in this by finding ways to helping others. This, at least, gets you moving in the right direciton.  

Deny yourself is a critical step to truly becoming love.

Love does not try to draw attention to itself. It does not brag about how good things are going or complain about how bad things are going. It remains focused on how best to serve and help others.

Love does not try to build itself up or parade itself around. It does not seek credit for what it has or what it does. It doesn’t matter what your car looks like, it doesn’t matter how big or fancy your house is. It doesn’t matter if anyone notices when you spend time or money doing something nice. You need to shut down your ego and get it out of the way for God’s love to flow through you to others.

Love does not build itself up by putting others down. We are each God’s children and deserve to be treated with love. He promises to treat you exactly as you have treated others. Don’t build yourself up at the expense of others.  Don’t tear others down just to build yourself up. Find ways to lower yourself and serve others; the last will be the first in His kingdom.

Love is not focused on money or material  things. Love is focused on using our gifts, talents and resources to do good works for other people. Find ways to be nice to people, loving others, helping those in need physically, mentally, and spiritually.  

Love does not worry about what others think or say or do to it. It does not get puffed up when people say nice things, it does not take offense when someone treats it badly. Don’t seek credit for doing good; Don’t let the left hand know what the right hand is doing.

Love is content.  It does not envy what others have or take actions to maliciously pursue or take it.

Picking up your cross challenges you and helps you become Love:

Love is willing to sacrifice and suffer for a good cause. God sent His son even while we were rebelling against Him as sinners. Jesus was willing to suffer and die on the cross for us, even while He was being rejected by the very people He came to save. He not only was willing to suffer for us, He said nothing while it happened and forgave those who did it to them.  God knows exactly what has happened to you and what you think, say, and do to others. He promises rewards in heaven for suffering wrongs in this life without retaliating.  

Love forgives and does not hold grudges. Love sees the best in people. Love sees each of us as God’s children struggling in a fallen world.  Love forgives them of misguided actions and is willing to move forward. You are called to absorb wrongs and forgive 70×7 times. You are even called to love your enemies, pray for them, and bless them. You are to overcome evil with good.

Follow Jesus and love will blossom into faith and bring Him glory:

Love is focused on the hope of eternal things rather than the trials and tribulations of our individual earthly life. Jesus focused on the Fathers work, and He did the Fathers will. Stay focused on God and His purpose for our life. We are here to bring God glory. What can we do to serve Him and bring Him glory in our earthly life and how can our earthly lives help others gain an eternal life with Him.

Love has hope and high expectations for God’s divine purpose and plan, Jesus was willing to pick up his cross and die for us on the promise of resurrection on the third day. We trust in Him and His plan even when things are not going well for us in this life.

Please take seriously the opportunity to deny yourself, pick up your cross daily, and follow Jesus. Imitate Him and become love. Walk as He walked, Become the light as He was in the light.  Become a bright beacon for His kingdom. Stand boldly on judgement day because you have become like Him in this life.

Hope this helps.