Week 7: Day 3
Mark 12:29-31
29 Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. 30 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ 31 The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
Love is not a feeling...But a God-sized word.
Doug Bender
Love...for some of us...me...that word and what it stands for was hard. And then...something incredible happened...I met Jesus and He begin changing my heart, my soul, my mind...everything about me. I found out that it really is a God-sized word!
Wrapping my mind around the fact that Jesus loves me regardless of all that I have done in my life...
now that was hard for me! Most of my life I didn't even believe that He wanted anything to do with me and now...He loves me!! Then people I don't really know are showing me love. Whoa...this was different! Then...the clincher. He wants me to love others...no matter what!
Some people in our lives are easy to love. We know that they love and care for us. We feel it from them. They show it to us all the time. It's easy to love them back.
But...We all have people in our lives that have wronged us in some way. Some who have really done terrible things to us. According to everything the Lord tells us...we even have to love them! The remarkable thing about that for me was...Once I forgave these people I did begin to love them. Only because of the love of Jesus in my life!
Then there are others that I don't know at all and yet I love them too. They are our neighbors in this life. Ones we run into everyday that are hurting. Ones that don't know Jesus as we do. Ones that need to know that someone...just loves them! They need to know that someone cares for them. Not just us...but JESUS!
Love...it really is a God-sized word!
The only way we can love as we are supposed to is this...to live second.
live second you won't be sorry. It's not always easy...but it is what we are called to do!
Love is not a feeling...But a God-sized word.
Doug Bender
Love...for some of us...me...that word and what it stands for was hard. And then...something incredible happened...I met Jesus and He begin changing my heart, my soul, my mind...everything about me. I found out that it really is a God-sized word!
Wrapping my mind around the fact that Jesus loves me regardless of all that I have done in my life...
now that was hard for me! Most of my life I didn't even believe that He wanted anything to do with me and now...He loves me!! Then people I don't really know are showing me love. Whoa...this was different! Then...the clincher. He wants me to love others...no matter what!
Some people in our lives are easy to love. We know that they love and care for us. We feel it from them. They show it to us all the time. It's easy to love them back.
But...We all have people in our lives that have wronged us in some way. Some who have really done terrible things to us. According to everything the Lord tells us...we even have to love them! The remarkable thing about that for me was...Once I forgave these people I did begin to love them. Only because of the love of Jesus in my life!
Then there are others that I don't know at all and yet I love them too. They are our neighbors in this life. Ones we run into everyday that are hurting. Ones that don't know Jesus as we do. Ones that need to know that someone...just loves them! They need to know that someone cares for them. Not just us...but JESUS!
Love...it really is a God-sized word!
The only way we can love as we are supposed to is this...to live second.
live second you won't be sorry. It's not always easy...but it is what we are called to do!
2 comments:
My wife and I used to refer to those that were hard to love as "EGRs" - short for Extra Grace Required. Part joke, but part reminder that we need to give people like that a little extra grace, show a little extra patience. But you're right, it's not easy.
Love is hard for us humans this is why we must ask God to show us how to love people and our spouses for when we don't we will love them from our perspective and end up doing it all wrong anyway.
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