“…And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us…” Ephesians 5:2
God allows us opportunities to love people that we don’t understand. There are also times we are called to love people we don’t completely agree with. We don’t always know what someone is going through or what they have lived through. There are details in their journey that is between them and God, and the grace He gives us to love them is between us and God.
Can we be so overwhelmed by God’s grace and love for us that we can’t help but have that same grace for others?
The Lord recently convicted me of being offended for someone else being hurt. I was so convinced that I was being a good friend and had the right to hold a grudge for my friend. The Lord reigned me in. I not only had no right to be offended for the victim, I had no right to not accept the fact that the Lord loves the person that hurt my friend as much as He loves me.
I am not suggesting we be doormats without boundaries. In fact, I believe we are to love ourselves…and then we can love our neighbor as we love ourselves. God loves us, so who are we to not love who He created? All of us are a work in progress and working out our salvation as Paul says in Philippians 2. Sometimes we need to give ourselves a little more grace, and sometimes we need to give others more grace.
Mahatma Gandhi was quoted as saying, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Jesus, help us to be more like You! I know that not every time will we succeed in this, and not every time will others even perceive our actions as an attempt to be like Christ but let us lean on Jesus’s chest as John did. It will be there that we can hear the heartbeat of our Savior and grow to be more like Him!
Dig Deeper
Ephesians 5:1-2 | Philippians 2:12 | Mark 12:31
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