I love vending machines. I don’t know if I would have made it through high school without them. I remember getting sodas like Surge and Josta (now relics of the past) and of course Mountain Dew to get me through the day.

And we all know how vending machines work. You put money in, and you expect to get something out. If your money went in, and nothing came out you feel... cheated. And rightly so. You may resort to hitting, banging, or rocking the vending machine until something does come out.

I believe we can treat relationships with others in the same way. If I’ve put in some time, energy, or effort to show love to someone then I may expect to receive something in return. If nothing ever comes out after we’ve put something in we again feel...cheated. So much so that you may give up on a relationship with someone else.

But what if our love for others was better than that? What if we could keep giving, keep serving, keep loving even if nothing was every reciprocated or came back to us?

How can this happen? Well, we need to look at God’s love for us.

If you saw his love rightly you would see he is a vending machine that gives exactly what we need all at no cost to us. Kinda of like the movie Big with Tom Hanks. He had a soda machine in his apartment, all you had to do was press the button or throw a sock at the machine, and soda came out for free.

God invites you today to receive the love your crave free of cost. You want someone to listen to you? Enter your selection receive it for free. You want someone to care for you? Come to him it’s free. You want someone to help you? It’s free. You want someone to guide you? It’s free. Just go to him and make your selection.

The prophet Isaiah spoke of God’s love this way when he recorded these words, “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, buy and eat!” (55:1). The love you need is the love he wants to give for free. The cross of Jesus makes this love ours for free. He paid the cost so that any and all who come to God can receive what they need for free.

And when you see God’s vending machine free of charge, giving all the love you need. It’s then we have the power to change our outlook and our way with others. We can put love, time, and effort in and if they never reciprocate we see already have what we need through God. It also can change our motivation. Now we don’t love in order to be loved, we love because we are loved. And we don’t serve in order to be served, we serve because we have been served. God bless!