Monday, February 20, 2012

Spiritual WOD - 2/20/2012

Spend time in prayer today for someone who is 'tough to love.'  This may be someone who obviously dislikes you, or someone who has wronged you.

*Share your thoughts on Comments.

"If you love only those people who love you, will God reward you for that...If you greet only your friends, what's so great about that? Don't even unbelievers do that? But you must always act like your Father in heaven."  (Matthew 5:46-47)

6 comments:

  1. This passage is interesting to me in that sometimes those people who are hard to love are those who I love most. And so I feel that it carries with it the idea of unconditional love. We are not to love someone because they fulfill our expectations. We are to love because God first loved us. This is the reason and the power by which we CAN love. My family is involved in our local Out of the Cold program and sometimes I find it hard to love someone who needs that and yet is also acting very ungratefully. These verses tell me to love someone simply because God loves, not because I want to. I have also seen the restorative power of God's love when His Spirit gave me the ability to love someone who had very deeply hurt me. God's love brings healing and peace and restoration.

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  2. I just completed a conversation with a trusting friend about the difficult time I'm having with loving a difficult person. My confidant had good advice but "prayer for" is even better. Thank you for the post today.

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  3. I'm involved in student ministry, and there is a kid who comes, "Carl", who is very disruptive and rude. He's always trying to cause havoc, won't participate in any of the group activities, picks on others and is mean to them, and says awful things to the leaders as he's rebelling. I have never enjoyed spending time anywhere near Carl, but I've had to do it on a few occasions. Once, after a really frustrating day with Carl, I complained to my friend about it and talked about just how awful Carl was and how I wished he could just be good like the other kids. My friend proceeded to make a great point by asking me a question. "Why did you start doing student ministry, to hang out with kids who already know Jesus or to try and share Jesus with kids like Carl, who have no idea?" That really helped to change my perspective and work a little harder to love Carl, realizing who I'm doing it for. Thanks for the post!

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  4. thank God He brings this scripture before me at just the right times to humble me and remind me that He in His great love sent His only begotten Son to die for my sin and the sin of the whole world while I/we were yet sinners. God bless you, Chip and Nicole for your faithfulness in this ministry!

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  5. Those that are toughest to love need it the most.

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  6. After the time my wife Thida Lun
    and me in argument, I hate her, she hates me, but in the morning, I still kissed her and we listen music from ceiling speaker, and we love each other more. Maybe it's the right thing I did.

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