We can’t force others into peaceful co-existence with us…we can only control how we react and behave around angry people. You know the ones…people with huge chips on their shoulders…always thinking the world is out to get them. It takes a conscious decision of the will on our part not to take the bait when attacked. It takes lots of deep breaths and determination not to lower ourselves down to that level…and sometimes, it takes just walking away for a few minutes to regain our composure and pray. “Lord, help me look past the angry hostility and see rather the hurt, the fear, the frustration. Allow me Lord to see this person through Your eyes and how I may show Your love to them.” Amen
Tag: agape love
I John 2:10-11 ” Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.”
I love nightlights! I’ll admit I have at least 8 spread throughout the house, casting their subtle radiance so I won’t trip and fall in the dark. God’s truth is like a nightlight into our darkness…showing us His way so we won’t stumble. But when we choose to not live by the light of His truth, we are easily deceived and blinded by lies that only foster hatred and distrust against our fellow-man. When we love one another, the light of God’s truth illuminates situations, obstacles, and personalities for what they really are…exposing hurting hearts and revealing with honesty how we’re more alike than different.
Hebrews 6:10 ” God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them.”
Faith is demonstrated by its works. And when we serve and care for other’s needs, we are actively showing the Lord’s unconditional (Agape) love for us. But don’t think that every time you help others it has to be big, grand, or showy…for Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:42 that just offering a cup of cold water to someone who needs it is a good work. In fact, the very basic definition of the Greek word for “help” in this verse means to wait tables. God will never overlook or ignore your good deeds – regardless of how small or insignificant you might think they are. For what you may see as just a simple kind act…the person receiving it sees Jesus.
I John 3:16 ” This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”
Without hesitation I know you’d answer a resounding “Yes!” to my question of whether you’d die for your spouse or children. But if we look closely at this verse, we’re not being asked to do that. Rather, we’re being directed to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians . OK wait, you want me to sacrifice for who? My family is one thing, but a neighbor or friend or somebody I hardly know at Church…I don’t know if I can do that. But when Jesus died on that Cross He didn’t pick and choose who He was dying for…He died for all. In John 10:11 it says, ” I am the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” To love one another with the Agape love that Christ first showed us is to be willing to be poured out like a drink offering for our brothers…regardless of who they are.
Colossians 2:2 ” My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love…”
As people waited in the crowded lobby, I over-heard a kind looking elderly gentleman ask the young lady seated next to him a rather probing question. She was bent over her phone, oblivious to anything or one around her, when he asked, “What would you be doing right now if you weren’t on your phone?” His tone of voice was gentle and reflective, which completely caught the young lady off guard and rendered her speechless. His question though got my mind whirling! How can we show the agape love of Christ to others when we’re folded up like a flower over our phones? How can we be Jesus to those around us when we totally disengaged from our surroundings…detached and indifferent? This verse says we are to be united in love which takes dedicated involvement and connection…not self-isolation and selfishness.
Philippians 1:3 ” I thank my God every time I remember you.”
When the Lord brings to mind a person…what do you do? You may say to yourself, “I haven’t touched base with that person in a long time, I wonder how they’re doing…and leave it at that. But have you ever thought that there’s a reason the Lord laid on your heart that individual? God wants you to do two things. The first is to pray, thanking God for them and asking for His Will to be done in their life. But secondly, He wants you to contact them. We are to love one another, and your encouragement may be the very thing they need that day.
II Thessalonians 2: 16-17 ” May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, Who loved us and by His grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.”
The Lord would like you to know that you are loved. You are valued and precious in His sight. Regardless of where you come from…how notorious your background may be, or how far you’ve walked away from Him…Jesus loves you. You may say to yourself, “No one can love me…I’m too bad of a person.” But you don’t know the Lord, and if you would just take a peek into His Word, you’d see that all of Scripture is a love letter to you. It’s written just for you, to encourage and exhort…to strengthen and establish and allow you to become the very best person you can be. By His wonderful grace – God’s loving kindness towards you – there is the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation back to your Heavenly Father. There’s no need to walk out this life alone with feelings of isolation and loneliness…Jesus loves you, just as you are, right where you are today.
John 17: 25-26 ” Righteous Father, though the world does not know You, I know You, and they know that You have sent Me. I have made You known to them, and will continue to make You known in order that the love You have for Me may be in them and that I Myself may be in them. “
God so loved the world that He gave us His Son, Jesus Christ. This overwhelming love was evidenced by Him sending Jesus to die for our sinful world…placing such unwarranted value on us, though we certainly didn’t deserve it. What we deserved was God’s wrath and judgment…but what we received was the sacrificial lamb of Jesus… Who died in our place.
John 15:12 ” My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
Jesus loves us with an unconditional love…it has no bounds…no restrictions. But can we love each other in the same way? Maybe it can be in what we don’t do that can show the love of Christ more effectively to those around us. Instead of yelling in anger and frustration at the kids…we don’t. Instead of becoming upset and disappointed with a co-worker…we don’t. Instead of allowing discouragement and despair to break apart our marriage…we don’t. For sometimes the greatest way to demonstrate God’s love to others… is in what we don’t do.
II Peter 1: 5-7 ” For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. “
Your Christian walk starts out on a Christ-shaped foundation…grounded in His Word…built on the solid rock of His love for you. But then starts the journey all Believers must make towards maturity. This scripture shows the progression from baby Christian to deeply rooted saint. Like a house being built on a stable foundation, each moral quality is stacked on top of the next…teaching, disciplining, and encouraging as we go. And in the end, a perfectly built structure will stand before our God.
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