This has been a rollercoaster of a year in America. I almost don’t want
to know any more news about anyone. TV can stir up anxiety. Elections tend to
bring out the worst of people – and watching comments fly on Facebook… Words
sting.
I have seen people rip people up – as have you – for
disagreeing on ‘points.’ But I wonder… Do we really know what ‘points’ we stand
for? I know I could use more education.
Watching all this makes me feel sad and lonely. I sat down to just get in the Word – to recover from the stress of life and God brought me
back to His purpose – love.
Love covers a multitude of sins. (1 peter 4:8)
I think we feel a decline in society – a moral decline, an
authoritative decline, a decline in faith of the One we had put our trust in
with this country.
Due to this decline – we suddenly feel the need to bring up
what we stand for –and throw insults at those who don’t agree. I have seen this
in brothers and sisters in Christ – and you have too.
But how do we choose love in such circumstances?
1.
Go back to God. Spend time in His word – asking
for his truth.
a.
Arm yourself with the Armor of God (Ephesians
6:10-18) our battles aren’t against flesh and blood – which translates – each
other
b.
Ask him to change your heart
c.
What is truth? Seek it. Jesus says – I am the
way the truth and the life. (john 14:6)
2.
Search out what you believe in his word. Just
don’t take others words for it. (I see many arguments where people are stating
words, but where is the truth?)
3.
Look at the things we can work on as individuals…
in other words, we have logs in our own eyes we need to fix before we worry
about specks in others. (Matthew 7:1-6)
4.
Finally – look at Jesus. How did he live? How
did he treat others?
I keep thinking about love your neighbor as yourself. We
have a gift as a Christian. We have Jesus. This is a gift to share. I met 3
precious children on a walk yesterday.
They wanted to pet Edward and asked how old joseph was. They were sweet, kind
and courteous. They were different races
from me. They were created in God’s image.
As I walked away – my heart broke for those out there who
are precious creations of God. They need a savior – He came that ‘non should
perish’(john 3:16.) And I realized… We are wrong. We are looking at everything
wrong, we are hurling stones, we are sitting in pits like vipers waiting to
strike at anything- like a hurting animal striking at the very person that
could help them.
And I remembered the verse – love your neighbor as yourself.
I looked that up in Matthew 22. I wanted to see the background to this
statement. I read the entire chapter and observed that Jesus spent a lot of His
time answering questions that were thrown at him to catch Him in a trap. He was
there to save – and he was rejected by the religious leads of the time - and his own received him not (John 1:11)
He was asked ‘What is the greatest commandment?’ here is his
response:
Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love
the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as
yourself.’40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based
on these two commandments.”
As humans – we are each uniquely designed – in the image
of God. One translation of the Bible (the message) put it this way:
Genesis
1:26 God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them
reflecting
our nature
We
should take care with God’s creation. We are all we have on this Earth. We
won’t all agree-even in our own faith. But have compassion towards one another.
Our goal isn’t to be proven right – it’s to love. How will other see his love
in us – if all we throw out there is hate.
If we
err – let it be on the side of love – and trust God enough to fix what we
can’t. Let’s bring him back into the picture.
