It is easy to have a heart filled with love, kindness, and forgiveness to those in our lives who show these same traits to us. Those are the ones we are drawn to, the ones that are easy to love. They make life fun and fairly peaceful. These people in our lives are the sunshine on a cloudy day.
And then there are “the others.” Those family members, friends, or even just acquaintances that seem to make life harder to bear. Did a few of “the others” in your life immediately come to mind?
Our human hearts are usually drawn to fairness when dealing with “the others.” And fairness isn’t wrong, is it? The hurts they inflict on us are often met with frustration, anger, unforgiveness, and perhaps even bitterness. There are times when we just become indifferent to them and try our best to distance ourselves. The truth is our gut, our first impulse reaction, is usually not a feeling of love.
As followers of Christ, we have been blessed with the incredible all-consuming love of a Heavenly Father. His love knows no bounds. His forgiveness is immediate and we seem to ask for it over and over. Although I am sure He gets frustrated and angry with us at times over our wayward steps in the wrong direction, His love never fades. His gut, His first impulse reaction towards us, is always love.
The more time we spend with our Savior through prayer and bible study, the more this love will begin to change our hearts. We can begin to see “the others” through His eyes rather than our own. We might even begin to understand things from their perspective. Or perhaps we will just begin to give others the benefit of the doubt. The love we are called to show to others in our lives is not at all dependent upon fairness.
1 Peter 3 is filled with great reminders about what this type of brotherly (and sisterly) love should look like in our lives.
This type of love is not our first reaction but it can be when our hearts are filled with gratefulness for the love and forgiveness we are given each day through Christ. When our minds are filled with knowledge of the compassion and humility He showed when He died on a cruel cross for our sins, including “the others.” Living this type of life where our hearts are so filled with His love that we cannot help but pour it out to others (regardless of how they treat us) will certainly look different in this world. In fact, John 13:35 tells us that this is how others will know we are His disciples.
This is the heart we are meant to have. If we really desire to make a difference in this world. If we have a heart felt passion to share Christ’s love with others, this is the way to do it. They will be drawn to this love without even understanding why. They will ask questions and we will be given opportunities to share.
My prayer is that each day (because we need it each and every day) we will have a change of heart through our time spent with Christ. That our hearts will begin to look more and more like His heart. That we will show love, kindness, and even forgiveness to everyone in our lives even (and especially) “the others.” And that this love will always serve as a light that guides others straight to Christ.
