Loving people can be difficult. In our Love Illuminated posts we’ll discuss how we can be more loving to more people that God’s love may visible to those around us.
Christ says we need to love everyone, but we all know someone in our lives that it takes more effort to love than most people. If you don’t know what I mean, you just might be that person for everybody else. In fact, I’m pretty sure that I’m that person for some people in my life. We all are.
Regardless, if we are going to grow as a church into a deeper community that shares God’s love, we must learn to overcome this. It starts by remembering that person is loved by God and that Jesus died for them. Regardless of who they are, what they’ve done, whatever it is about them that makes them more difficult for us to be around, to always think the best, to love, they are loved by God just as much as we are since we are also sinners desperately in need of a Savior whether we realize it at the moment or not.
Our job is to pass the love that we’ve received from Christ to others. So once we remember we’re no different than them and that God loves them, we can pray that God would reveal how we can love them better. Whether He gives us a clear answer or not, our next step is to love them anyway. To reach out to them, befriend them, and simply smile next time we see them. Often that first smile is all it takes for God to begin to change our hearts.
So let’s get out there and start loving those people that are more difficult to love.
Q&A: So how have you been able to love people who weren’t so lovable?