People Are Not Easy to Love (no.3)

“Who then will harm you if you are devoted to what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed. Do not fear them or be intimidated, but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do this with gentleness and reverence, keeping a clear conscience, so that when you are accused, those who disparage your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil” (1 Peter 3:13-17). Who will harm you for doing good? Those that are evil. And we need to remember that even though evil can have a very human face in this world, “. . . our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens” (Ephesians 6:12). Sometimes people are not easy to love because their hearts are set to evil.

When folks don’t value the same things I value, I can feel attacked. It is a response that humans have developed. If someone does not believe just like I do, then I often want to make them into evil. BUT people are not evil. Sure, people do evil things BUT evil is a choice. The more we get used to doing evil things, then the easier it is to keep doing evil things. I can get into a routine that normalizes doing evil things. I can get so used to evil that it becomes my default.

I have seen many of those people. Luckily, I have never been one of those people despite the many evil things I have done. I never allowed evil to become a habit. BUT choosing evil is something that gets easier each time I make that choice. BUT I need to remember in whose image I am created. I need to remember that I carry the holiness of His Spirit lives within me. I need to defend His Kingdom “with gentleness and reverence” rather than anger and pride. All too often I want others to suffer for being what I deem evil. BUT it should be me that is doing the suffering for them. I need to remember that I am to suffer, “For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.” If my life is going to be a model of servitude, then there will be sacrifices. There will be suffering. There will be a lifetime of choosing whether I follow by His words to, “. . . deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me and the gospel will save it” (Mark 8:34-35). And I need to lose myself in Him even when I am faced with evil.

Sure, folks are not easy to love because they sometimes choose evil, however, I do not have to choose the same. I am granted His Spirit to combat those forces in obedience to Him. I am here to show His Way of dealing with evil. I am here to suffer the evil of others because He suffered that same evil for me.

Grace and Shalom to your home.

I love you. I forgive you. Have a blessed and abundant day!

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #NotMyWayYHWH

People Are Not Easy to Love (no. 2)

“From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us” (2 Corinthians 5:16-19 CSB).

When I started my journey, I didn’t want to change BUT I needed to change. I started out my journey just wanting to start changing things here and there. I started with just wanting to change my physical health and that led to me changing my mental health which then led to me working on my spiritual health. And that is the chance we take when we let God do what He wants. I was content with just getting better for now in this area and that area BUT He was not content with little changes here and there. He was interested in changing the whole of me into something completely different.

And that is what is dangerous about giving your life over to God. You lose control. I have lost control of my life. I have had to quickly come to terms with that reality. I was no more than a few weeks into my journey when I realized this wasn’t going the way I thought it was going to go. And it still isn’t. I just had to give up. I had to surrender. And sometimes I don’t think a lot of us are ready to do that. I know I wasn’t ready to surrender ten years ago. I wasn’t ready to surrender twenty years ago. I wasn’t ready to surrender thirty years ago. BUT I have surrendered now. I have taken Him at His word, “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it’”(Matthew 16:24-25 CSB).

Grace and Shalom to your home.

I love you. I forgive you. Have a blessed and abundant day!

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #NotMyWayYHWH