We continue to free ourselves up to love by having released thoughts of judgment, discrimination, or people deserving or not deserving love along with all the ideas that the powers of darkness would have us buy into. The more we walk saying and thinking that we love people, the more we can and the more we do love. On this journey, God continually has put people in our path that we love and that love us back. Although, we are not rich by financial standards, we are richer than we have ever been. We are more fulfilled than we have ever been. The more we partner with God in loving others, the more we feel His love around us.
I remember when I was in the business world, the more you did things well, the more opportunities you were given by the boss to do those things. The boss not only continued to use you in those areas but he gave you more challenging things to see what more you could do. That process was a blessing because it led to more perks or better pay and a better self esteem.
Loving others has had the same impact on us. I believe that when he can trust us to love, He continually gives us the opportunity to love. He also broadens what He is doing in our lives by challenging us in more ways. Those challenges bring blessings. Maybe not perks or a pay raise, but blessings of feeling fulfilled and feeling like we were doing something valuable and important.
It is now so easy to look past things in people that in the past may have given us cause to evaluate if they met our criteria of love worthiness. People are cool, unique, amazing and wonderful. People are different, with different colored hair, tattoos, clothing, hobbies, occupations, passions and experiences. People are so diverse that you can't help but love them. Remember the way we used to compare ourselves to each other, the old keeping up with the Jones' stuff, wanting to have and be what other people had? Isn't that a waste of time? Maybe to let go of some of that, we have to learn to love ourselves better. But, grab a skillet and fry me some fritters, people are so darn cool! I just love people! Aren't you just amazed at the variety of pictures people take, of things they paint and draw, of the music and songs they compose, of how they trick out cars and motorcycles? Are you amazed at the clothes they design, the poems they write, the products they invent? Doesn't the inventing of indoor plumbing and the light bulb drive you crazy? WOW!
Sure there are times when some people bug us, but compared to what people do and can do, how trivial are those times? Don't you agree? Okay, maybe some of you are wavering on agreeing or disagreeing. Let me offer you this, so if the guy who surgically saved your neighbors mother in law's life was ahead of you in traffic and did something somewhat stupid causing you to hit the brakes, would that warrant spending the rest of the day calling him a jerk, and about 30 other words you could insult him with? Would that warrant you ignoring the fact that the person who made a bad move in traffic may be more than a lousy driver? People have value, all people have value. Though they may not be great drivers, they have God given talents that can't and shouldn't be ignored.
Guess what, humans are, well, human. We as humans make mistakes and do stupid things, that is a given. Does that warrant not loving the entire species? If you are having trouble answering that, let me help, NO! Get over the foolish trivial things of life, the little bitty mistakes we all make and just love someone, everyone.
Since adopting God's lead to love people, He has brought some wonderful amazing people into our lives. We have just met a couple who have the greatest hearts and minister in love to a group of people that get lost in the system and the world. There are so many groups of people who simply need to be loved. They want to be loved, but almost have to be convinced they are worth loving because life has made them feel so unworthy. Can you believe that we do that to each other? Does that not break your heart? They need our love to be whole and to have value. Aren't we the same? Don't we need the same things? Don't we have the same desires?
How about this? How about we all share a little of our love with everyone around us? If you can picture the entire world (nothing is too big for God) sharing a little bit of love with everyone they meet, woohoo! What an amazing place this would be!
The more I make an effort to love, the more I see love and the more I feel love and the world IS, more and more an amazing place.
If you have a hard time getting past the stuff, if you have a hard time loving, pray that God will change your heart. Pray that He give you the gift of loving as He instructs us to. Love until you laugh, love until you cry, love until your cup runs over, love until you make Him all mushy and proud of His creation.
1 Peter NLT "You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, SO NOW you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart".
God asks us to respond to His love for us by loving others. Love one another.