How To Love People…the Way God Loves Us!
I love marriage...love being married and everything about marriage!! Brad and I have worked very hard to have the relationship we share today and will always be in the process of improving it! Marriage is one of the greatest ways to learn about love and has taught me so much about God's love for me and I am so grateful to God for the lessons He is continuing to teach me on being a better 'lover'...to all the people in my life!
I love marriage...love being married and everything about marriage!! Brad and I have worked very hard to have the relationship we share today and will always be in the process of improving it! Marriage is one of the greatest ways to learn about love and has taught me so much about God's love for me and I am so grateful to God for the lessons He is continuing to teach me on being a better 'lover'...to all the people in my life!
Interestingly, I have found when people are nice and behaving well they are a lot easier to love than people who are acting ugly or behaving badly, but that is when they need to be loved the most!! It is ironic how God made ‘love’ that way. He told His disciples before He left them, His commandment to them was to Love One Another the way He loved them. You know why that is what he chose to say above all other things? He did it because it is the most difficult commandment to keep. Why…because Love covers all things . If you love, you are patient, kind, forgiving, you keep no record of wrongs (wow), you will not steal, or covet, or kill…etc. It covers all the bases…all the commandments, all the fruits, everything…and at the end of I Corinthians 13…it says, “Love Never Fails”.
When He was about to leave, He could have told the disciples many things to do…go teach the Word, tell people I died for them, tell people I am alive, their sins are forgiven. In fact, when you think about it, it is actually easier to ‘tell’ someone about Jesus and their sins, than to love them through their sin.
Really, when someone is in sin, what is your normal reaction? Don’t you want to just let them know what it is they are doing wrong? Tell them to turn away from their sin, to repent and God will forgive them? This many times will just come across judgmental. We may have the right motives, but when someone is hurting because of sin in their life, they tend to be defensive, insecure, and more than likely feel guilt and shame. Nine times out of ten, they actually already know they are behaving badly, so guess what….you don’t have to tell them! It is no revelation to them…they already know!! So many times we think we have come across this great eye opening discovery and feel the need to let everyone else know what it is they need to correct in their life, but they already know!
When He was about to leave, He could have told the disciples many things to do…go teach the Word, tell people I died for them, tell people I am alive, their sins are forgiven. In fact, when you think about it, it is actually easier to ‘tell’ someone about Jesus and their sins, than to love them through their sin.
Really, when someone is in sin, what is your normal reaction? Don’t you want to just let them know what it is they are doing wrong? Tell them to turn away from their sin, to repent and God will forgive them? This many times will just come across judgmental. We may have the right motives, but when someone is hurting because of sin in their life, they tend to be defensive, insecure, and more than likely feel guilt and shame. Nine times out of ten, they actually already know they are behaving badly, so guess what….you don’t have to tell them! It is no revelation to them…they already know!! So many times we think we have come across this great eye opening discovery and feel the need to let everyone else know what it is they need to correct in their life, but they already know!
If you want to be an effective Christian, there is only one thing you need to learn to do and do well…that is to love the way Christ loves us…unconditionally, with a pure heart. That does not mean you let people walk all over you and mistreat you, but what it does mean is to show genuine love through forgiveness and humility. God’s love is powerful. After all, love never fails!
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