Discussion/Devotional thought for this day…

We each have them, people in our lives who are challenging to be around, yet we are not just called to be around them, but to love as well.

Matter of fact, we would consider it down-right impossible to love, and when we get to the part of the Lord’s prayer that says. forgive us our sins as we forgive… our hearts and throats get a lump in them. Never mind when the pastor quotes 1 John 4 in a sermon,

^4:20 Anyone who says ‘I love God’ and hates his brother, is a liar, since whoever does not love the brother whom he can see cannot love God whom he has not seen.  1 John 4:20 (NJB)

The strength to love these, who are often the least of, (not that they think they are.. but as those unloved.. they are!) has to be something that is generated by supernatural means, our own hearts are too fragile, our wills to weak.  One of my favorite authors puts it this way… it will take sacrifice, it will take.. incredible love.. the kind that we barely even know, the will to sacrifice we’ve only begun to comprehend…

One of my favorite authors puts it this way…

“Haven’t you gone against your own preference, your whims, some time, in something? You must realise that the One who asks you is nailed to a Cross, suffering in all his senses and faculties, with a crown of thorns on his head… for you.”  (Escriva,)

We all, at sometime in our lives, have found the discipline, the will to accomplish something – a school project, a athletic  endeavor, an attempt to learn something new..

This will take more concentration though, and concentration on the One who asks you to love, to love as completely as He does… and did.  For we know the result.. the blessing isn’t just peace between your adversary and yourself, but within the family of God.  It is looking to Him, finding our inspiration, our power, the love we need….
then, transformed by His love…

you can love… even the unlovable…

for they aren’t you know – the one who loved you from the cross… loves them as well!

Lord Have mercy we cry… and we know.. He has!