How do we express God’s love to others?
I’m Dr. Chuck, and here’s your spoonful of courage:
As we’ve discussed before, Grace has poured out in our hearts. Romans 5:5 suggests that every believer has received an overflowing dose of love—based on Christ’s finished work.
But how do we express that unconditional affection toward those who hurt us, who frustrate us, and seem to be more of an obstacle?
How do we say a kind word when we really want to choke that hard to love person?
The Spirit of Christ has given us the resources needed to express kindness, generosity, and patience for those challenging people. God’s love is there, but we have to draw it out and utilize it. With God all things are possible, but they aren’t always easy.
Here’s some simple tips:
- First—Stop and take a deep breath. Instead of responding in a way you’ll regret, pause. Your silence speaks more than you know.
- Second—Ask for help. Ask for wisdom. James 1:5 promises that if we lack wisdom in a situation… we can ask. God will supply a wise response. Sometimes, that means putting some distance between us and our problem person. Sometimes that means listening and filtering what they have to say.
- Third: Take your emotions—anger, frustrations, and hurts to God in prayer. The Psalms are filled with people coming to God with intense feelings towards those difficult people. Some of those Psalms don’t sound super spiritual. We read things like:
God, knock their teeth out. Break their jaw. Hit them with a lightning bolt of judgement. Yep, its much better to express our raw feeling to God than dump them out before those who have hurt us—or to others we confide in.
God knows what we’re thinking and feeling anyway. And God has experienced hurts and frustrations. Need I remind you of the cross? False accusations. Insults. Hurts beyond our imagination.
- Fourth: Reflect on this. We don’t get what we deserve. We’ve received grace and mercy instead of judgement. We are forgiven.
- Fifth: Change focus. We’ve got to stop thinking about the offenses against us and begin thinking about the needs and interests of others.
The scriptures encourage us to build others up…. Not tear them down.
With humility of mind… we are encouraged to regard others as more important than ourselves. (That’s Phillipians 2:1-4). We should look out/”focus”/ on the interests of others rather than our own.
So often we fail to recognize that hurt people hurt others. And those that have been hurt—tend to lash out….
And God’s love helps us break the cycle of heaping hurt upon hurt upon hurt.
And finally, reflect upon the scriptures… God not only describes what this kind of love looks like… say for example the “love” chapter in 1 Corinthians 13….
He gives us promises….. Here’s one:
“For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love, and discipline.” That’s second timothy 1:7.
Love— the believer has it.
Power—God gives us the ability to express it.
Discipline—the ability to control our attitudes and actions…. And be governed by the Spirit instead of our old nature.
So, when you faced with a hard to love person… and squeezed into a tough situation, remember these little tips.
I’m Dr. Chuck. God has not only given you the capacity to love the unlovable. He has and will equip you with what you need.
