Learning the Exciting and New Love from Jesus

Love him? Sometimes I don’t even like him.

I am going to step out on a limb and say that I am not the first wife to be annoyed or upset at a husband. I am not the first person on earth to want to do some sort of damage to another human being or maybe a whole flock of people. I suspect that I am not the first parent that wanted to squash the person bullying or harassing my child.

Love him? Certainly that was not what God was directing me to do. How am I supposed to love someone when the only thing I want to do is take them between my thumb and finger and crush them.

In Luke 6:35, Jesus directly confronts the issues that I am facing with people that are not so nice. He says I am to LOVE my enemies and not only that that I am to do good to them and the lend to them without expectation of return.

Love him AND do good to him? Seriously?
[tweetthis]Love – not because you feel like it but because you are loved.[/tweetthis]
I would like to convince myself that maybe Jesus had no understanding of how mean she was to me. I want to press forward in my own plans because Jesus was not addressing the fact that she had is coming.

Only, when I read on it says that I am to love my enemies and do good to my enemies as a reflection of the Father who is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.

Oops, maybe he did know.

It turns out that Jesus was a rather smart guy. He seemed to be able to speak to me in my moment even when he was teaching back two thousand years ago.

[tweetthis]Love – not because they are good to you but because God is good to you.[/tweetthis]

So what does this love look like – this love that is not bound by emotions or feeling?

1 Corinthians 13: 4 – 8 says this:

Love is patient.
Love is kind.
Love does not envy.
Love does not boast.
Love is not puffed up with pride.
Love is not rude.
Love is not self-seeking.
Love is not easily angered.
Love keeps NO record of wrong doings.
Love rejoices in truth.
Love protects.
Love trusts.
Love hopes.
Love preserves.
Lover never fails.

Wow – that is quite a to-do list. But if I make the effort to do the things that grow up this love then I will not get caught up in the mess going on around me.

Discipling Women: Damage Control

Love – not because you feel like it but because you are loved.
Love – not because they are good to you but because God is good to you.
Love – not because you want something but because God has already given you all that you will ever need.

[tweetthis]Love – not because you want something but because God has already give you it all.[/tweetthis]

Love – when you approach it from this direction – will be exciting and new and will make the way for you to change YOUR world.

Be blessed,