I frequently visit Biblegateway.com for several reasons. One thing I enjoy is their verse of the day. Some speak to me more than others, but today's really hit me.
“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”- 1 John 4:11-12
To love one another is one of the hardest things we as humans will ever have to do. I find it so difficult to smile and say loving things to someone who cuts you off in traffic, the naysayers, etc. It is a daily struggle. I have not acheived the goal of loving my family and friends as God would want us to, let alone strangers I come across.
The love I speak of is unconditional. It is unrelenting, unyeilding, unshakeable love. God loves us so much and he loves us without the condition of "what's in it for me." It is the most unselfish open love anyone will ever experience.
I want to be able to love someone in the face of resistence. I want to love everyone equally. I want to have someone yell at me and I can look at them and say "I love you." Not that I really want someone to yell at me, but I want the ability to love in the face of danger to myself, my loved ones, or what may come.
I have felt the change in me since my salvation. I have had more compassion for people, which I didn't think was possible. I do have a considerable amount of compassion for people to begin with, but I always thought it was a negative attribute. My mother is so incredibly tender hearted and would cry at the drop of a hat and I saw it as weak. I thought I was weak because I do care for people and when they take advantage of the compassion it hardens your heart. I felt I was being hardened and I want to break that down and become vulnerable again.
I have also been able to discern peoples motivations. When they are mean or ugly to me or people I know, I can have sympathy for them because I know where their heart is. And that place is so much harder to deal with. It makes me want to hug them for their struggle and tell them its ok, God is on their side.
One thing my boss has repeated from one of her former bosses is "You can't let what people do to you harden your heart to others." This is so true, but so often we let those wounds cover our heart and develop scar tissue. Scar tissue is much harder than regular tissue and when you feel you have been wounded too much you heart becomes one large callous to the outside world.
I have developed the survival instinct of "What's In it for Me" and I don't want to live like that anymore. I want to love with reckless abandon. With complete vulnerability. And I won't be scared to get hurt because I won't be. Because it will be God's love flowing through me. He pours out His Spirit everyday.
I want to be a jar of clay, a vessel for His love. This means taking less offense and taking a leap of faith.
“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”- 1 John 4:11-12
To love one another is one of the hardest things we as humans will ever have to do. I find it so difficult to smile and say loving things to someone who cuts you off in traffic, the naysayers, etc. It is a daily struggle. I have not acheived the goal of loving my family and friends as God would want us to, let alone strangers I come across.
The love I speak of is unconditional. It is unrelenting, unyeilding, unshakeable love. God loves us so much and he loves us without the condition of "what's in it for me." It is the most unselfish open love anyone will ever experience.
I want to be able to love someone in the face of resistence. I want to love everyone equally. I want to have someone yell at me and I can look at them and say "I love you." Not that I really want someone to yell at me, but I want the ability to love in the face of danger to myself, my loved ones, or what may come.
I have felt the change in me since my salvation. I have had more compassion for people, which I didn't think was possible. I do have a considerable amount of compassion for people to begin with, but I always thought it was a negative attribute. My mother is so incredibly tender hearted and would cry at the drop of a hat and I saw it as weak. I thought I was weak because I do care for people and when they take advantage of the compassion it hardens your heart. I felt I was being hardened and I want to break that down and become vulnerable again.
I have also been able to discern peoples motivations. When they are mean or ugly to me or people I know, I can have sympathy for them because I know where their heart is. And that place is so much harder to deal with. It makes me want to hug them for their struggle and tell them its ok, God is on their side.
One thing my boss has repeated from one of her former bosses is "You can't let what people do to you harden your heart to others." This is so true, but so often we let those wounds cover our heart and develop scar tissue. Scar tissue is much harder than regular tissue and when you feel you have been wounded too much you heart becomes one large callous to the outside world.
I have developed the survival instinct of "What's In it for Me" and I don't want to live like that anymore. I want to love with reckless abandon. With complete vulnerability. And I won't be scared to get hurt because I won't be. Because it will be God's love flowing through me. He pours out His Spirit everyday.
I want to be a jar of clay, a vessel for His love. This means taking less offense and taking a leap of faith.
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