Get a Glimpse

"When you love the unloving, you get a glimpse of what God does for you."                 ~ Max Lucado

It's pretty easy to love the loving, the lovable, and the ones who love us, isn't it? I also find it easier to love the poor and needy than the rich and snobbish, the humble than the arrogant, the encouraging people than the critical people, the American soldiers than the terrorists, etc. However, God does not call us to love only certain groups/kinds of people. He commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:39), love one another (1 John 3:23), love our brother (1 John 4:21), and love our enemies (Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:27-28, 35-36). Whom does He leave out? Nobody! One of my favorite quotes is "We cannot choose whom we will love if we claim to be Christians." (~Unknown)

"Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:7-8) Yes, we were the unloving, yet God loved us and sent His one and only Son to die for us. He loves us even though we don't deserve it, even when we don't love Him back. He knows all our flaws and imperfections, our badness and ugliness, yet He still chooses to love us. Therefore, if our love is to be like Christ's, we must love those who don't love us, those who refuse to accept our love, those who are unloving...whether they deserve our love or not...whether we feel like it or not. How can we love like Christ does? We must abide in Him and ask Him to fill us with His love and empower us to love others with that same love. Unconditional. Sacrificial. Selfless. Limitless. May our lives reflect our gratitude to God for His unfailing love for us by loving others with His love! May His love in us manifest through us when our human love fails! May we never forget how God first loved us...the unloving.

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that.” (Luke 6:32-33).

“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…And this is His command; to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as He commanded us” (I John 3:16, 23).

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (I John 4:7-8).

 
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