Who do you love, is a hard question. It is easy to love those that love us, but what about those people who irritate us? There are some people who just seem to have it out for us. It doesn’t matter what you do you can never please them and it seems that their one goal in life is to make your life miserable.
The next question would be, “On the day of your funeral, as you lie there in your casket, is anything going to bother you anymore?” You may be thinking right now, “What kind of question is that? This lady is crazy. Of course I am not going to care because I am dead.”
I want to propose to you that the only way we can follow God’s command to “Love our enemies”, is to be dead. This kind of death is not a physical death but a death to self. A death to self is a very hard death. We may think that we are dead but just have one person cross us or say something mean about us or one of our family members, self will appear. We could be 100% right but self still has to stay dead.
I know of only One Person who was 100% right and that was Jesus Christ. When He walked this earth He was perfect. He had every right to defend Himself but He never did. He is our example. He deserved none of the evil treatment that He received. We are not perfect and there are times we deserve what is coming to us but we still feel it is unfair and we feel sorry for ourselves and fight against it. He didn’t deserve any of it and He took it without complaint. And He still loved the people who did it to Him. He was dead to self. For us to be dead to self we cannot do it on our own. We need the power of God in our lives. We need to be surrendered to Him daily, moment by moment.
We are told that we should “rejoice always”. Why has God asked us to do this and how can we possibly do it? “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” James 1 2-4 The reason we can rejoice is that all these things come to our lives for a purpose. We are like a stone that needs to have “hewers” to refine us into the image of God so that we can fit perfectly into His Kingdom. The trials and temptations that come to us are the “hewers” that God uses to form us to fit in His Kingdom. Only the love of God can help us to love our enemies or those that treat us unjustly. Some of our best refiners can be our own family. Some of our family may be hard to get a long with but through the power and grace of God we can use these circumstances to refine our characters.
There is only one way we can love as Jesus loves and that is to get to know Him. As we get to know Him we come to realize He loves us with such love despite our shortcomings and we should do the same for others. It is a moment-by-moment walk with His power that can keep self dead.
Dear Father,
We need you. Thank You for the trials and temptations that you allow so that our characters can be refined. It is not easy to rejoice in all things but I know that as we do this Your perfect work will be preformed in us. Thank You for loving us.
In Jesus Name,
Amen
Are you wondering how you can rejoice in the work the Lord is doing in your life? It isn’t easy, I know, but I have found that as I speak words of gratefulness my attitude starts to change and I grow. If we resist we will not grow. Embrace God’s “hewers” and with His strength You will overcome.
Love you all!
Is there a time that God has allowed a “hewer” in your life and as you trusted Him through it, miracles happened? I would love to hear how God has worked in your life.