He Never, Never Quits ... How About You?

But you, oh God, are both tender and kind,
not easily angered, immense in love, 
and you never, never quit.
Psalm 86:15

The truth of God's unconditional love is amazing, isn't it?  Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.  Can you imagine having that much patience?  Being so unbelievably slow to anger?  Forgiving to a fault (so to speak)?

Well keep imagining, because this is what God asks of us.  Unconditional love, forgiving others seven times seventy times.  Self-control over our otherwise self-centered, "How dare they do that to ME!" anger.

Whether it's your marriage, where you need to show unconditional love and respect for your spouse, serving him/her without expectation of reciprocity, forgiving the seemingly unforgivable ... or it's with your kids, your friends, your co-workers, your extended family, even your "enemies" ... we are called to reflect Christ in our patience, our tenderness and kindness.

This is the best way to draw people to Christ ... by showing what He's like.  And this is the only way to live.  Imagine the weight this will take off of your shoulders when you let go of your pride, your stress, your anger and bitterness.

God, give us your unconditional love and patience.  Help us to be slow to anger as you are.  Help us to never, ever give up on our loved ones, as well as our not-so-loved-ones.  Give us your tenderness and kindness when we'd rather lash out, hold grudges, let our pride control us.  We trust your ways ... they are simply better than ours.  Help us, Father, to SHOW that we trust you more and more.  In Jesus name.  Amen.

Love EVERYONE

Yes, everyone.

That means we are to love the guy that cut us off in traffic, the girl or girl that broke our heart, the guy that picked on us throughout high school, the girl that spread rumors about us, the highly political person on Facebook that makes your blood boil with how they think, the person who said those things that were so deeply hurtful ... even the guy that killed our daughter in that drunk driving accident, and got away with it.

Everyone. That's who we're called to love.

That means serving them. That means saying something kind when that's the last thing you'd like to do. That means helping them when they're down. That means never speaking ill about them.

Hard to do?  Absolutely.  But imagine how hard it was for Jesus to go to that cross and suffer and die for us for something he never did. For something we did to his Father.

If He can love that way, so can I.