How hard is it for you to serve people you love without having to choose that attitude? EASY
How hard is it for you to serve people you have to choose daily/hourly to love?
A little bit harder right?
This is something I am struggling with at this point in my race…or life in general. Choosing to have a loving attitude towards those who we wouldn’t always choose to be around or have conversations with on a daily basis.
As I sat in my quiet time the other morning, I was journaling about how much I was struggling with this and in that moment my IPod changed over to a sermon I had downloaded from my pastor back home. The sermon was titled- First Things First. I thought nothing about it as I continued to journal and just have his voice as background noise while I wrote down all my thoughts.
First things first… “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31) The subtitle of this section in Mark is called ‘The Greatest Commandment’. Sure we all recognize this is normally called ‘The Greatest Commandment’ but for what reason?
The reason is not because this is more important than any others and this is the only one to really pay attention to…simply…if you get these two commandments right, the rest will follow suit and be easy as we walk with Christ. Loving God with all of your being makes loving others easy and a part of everyday life…if we TRULY love God and have a relationship with him as a daughter or son of him, everything else that he commands will be so easy to do in everyday life.
My pastor gave the example of having a boss who you respect and just enjoy being around. If that boss asked you to do something outside of the realm of your job description, most people wouldn’t hesitate because you respect and love this person. On the other hand, let’s say you have a boss or coworker who you struggle to be around at work day in and day out. This person asks you to help them with something (possibly well within your job description)… we can admit it’s very hard to swallow our pride and say we will help this person…we may agree to help but we definitely do it while we complain and grumble about how everything they do gets on our nerves.
What if we took time each day …not to pray for our patience with this person…but pray FOR that person and pray that God would give us ways to show love to these people. Yes…I know… it’s difficult to swallow our pride and get out of the way of ourselves…but it is a decision to be made on our parts. Make a decision everyday to love that person more and to show respect to that person more… Seek the Lord more and seek God’s heart more. By seeking the Lord’s heart and asking to love as he loves…we will see change in our own hearts. No…not see that person change to fit our mold or change what aggravates us about them…but OUR hearts will change. God loves everyone so much…pursues them beyond all comprehension, so by praying to love as God loves, things that we think are impossible to do (because we can’t get past ourselves) will be happening.
The last verse I want to share with you is a verse that was brought to my attention (also by another sermon my pastor preached)…Ephesians 4:1-6. I remember it so clearly…it was about 2-3 weeks before I was leaving for the World Race and he spoke on answering the call and how go about serving those around us. If you were to open up my Bible and look at this verse it has in bold letters WR (which is World Race). Keeping the unity was something my pastor talked about…KEEPING it…not trying to begin this…we are one body…God has already given us a unity because we are fighting for the same cause…because we are serving the Lord we are called together. We have received a calling greater than anything on earth…hold each other up and push each other to be the person God created us to be…Free and a son or daughter of the KING.
“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit-just as you were called to one hope when you were called- one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
Ephesians 4:1-6
