Post by Cindy on Feb 12, 2016 9:35:08 GMT -5
You are hard to love too. Understanding this is the start of learning to love difficult people. Just like those difficult people, you and I sin and go astray (Isaiah 53:6; Romans 3:22–23). It took Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for God to welcome you into his family. God doesn’t love you because you make such a wonderful addition to his family; he loves you in spite of what you are like. And through his love for you, he changes you to be like himself. He makes you lovely, even though you didn’t start out lovely (2 Cor 5:17, 2 Cor 5:21). You need exactly the same things from God—grace, mercy, kindness, and welcome—that others need from you.
If deep down you know you are unlovable and God’s acceptance of you is completely undeserved, then you will have a welcoming attitude toward other unlovely people. But if you believe you’re basically a decent person who anyone would be privileged to know, then you won’t welcome others until they get their act together and become decent . . . just like you! Learning the difficult skill of loving difficult people starts by asking God to show you how hard you are to love. When he answers your prayer, ask him to forgive you. Then because you have been forgiven for so much, you will be able to share the grace you have received with others (Luke 7:47).
“Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:11–21)
Heart of the matter: Daily reflections for changing hearts and lives.
If deep down you know you are unlovable and God’s acceptance of you is completely undeserved, then you will have a welcoming attitude toward other unlovely people. But if you believe you’re basically a decent person who anyone would be privileged to know, then you won’t welcome others until they get their act together and become decent . . . just like you! Learning the difficult skill of loving difficult people starts by asking God to show you how hard you are to love. When he answers your prayer, ask him to forgive you. Then because you have been forgiven for so much, you will be able to share the grace you have received with others (Luke 7:47).
“Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:11–21)
Heart of the matter: Daily reflections for changing hearts and lives.
!!
