Tuesday afternoon as I visited with one of our church family we were interrupted by a person who I have encountered many times. This person comes by frequently usually looking for some type of help. My first response was to tell the person that I was busy and to go away. But as I was about to do that God stopped me and very gentle told me to show love to this person. I have to be honest it is hard for me to love this person. Their life style is not something that I believe is of God and this person is also very demanding and not very grateful when I do help them. After I was able to help this person I began to wonder if Jesus had to deal with people like this person in His earthly ministry. Then the spiritual light bulb went off and I though of course He did. Jesus had people all the time demanding things from Him. Jesus healed, feed, and helped many people. And as I thought about it we don't have a record of many of them telling Him thank you. When Jesus feed the 4,000 and the 5,000 did any of them tell Him thank you? When He raised Lazarus from the dead did Martha and Mary tell Him thank you? Did any of the people Jesus healed tell Him thank you?
There was one episode when Jesus healed some people and most of the them didn't tell Him thank you. Jesus encountered ten lepers. They called out to Him and ask for mercy. Jesus told them to go show themselves to the priest and as they were going they all were healed. One of the men saw he was healed and came back to thank Jesus, but the other nine didn't.
As I thought about how ungrateful most of the people Jesus ministered to were, I realized that I needed to love this person who was so demanding and ungrateful because it is not about the person or me it is about obeying and honoring Jesus. If I love only the lovable people that is easy and anybody can do that. If I love the unlovable then it is not me loving them because I can't, it is about Jesus loving them through me. That glorifies God!
I realize now that this person who I struggle with loving has been brought into my life by God so I can help them but also so I can learn how to love like Jesus. The whole salvation process is not just about me going to heaven, but God molding me into the image of His Son, Jesus. God is Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls of my life through learning to love people like Jesus does, not matter who they are, what they do, how demanding they are or how ungrateful they are. I want the love of Jesus to be a character trait of my life.
Joe
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