Daily Devotional: Love for Others

Often, we hear it preached about Jesus being the embodiment of love and that we are to strive to be Christ-like every day. Part of that is us showing love. It’s easy for us to do that for those who are kind to us, but true love is also showing love towards those who aren’t kind to us.

God calls us to love all people. All people include the sinner, the drug addict, and the struggling lost soul trying to find their way home. If we are unkind to these people while we proclaim to be a follower of Christ, it only leads these people to believe that our God must not be loving if we are to be like Him, but judge and criticize them instead of ‘being’ love.

You’ll be amazed at how much you can reach someone’s heart just by showing the smallest kindness to them. When you exhibit love to those who have never been shown or felt love it can ignite this passion to want to know more about your God. They’ll want to know who this God is that warms your heart and makes such love shine through you.

The only way you can exhibit this kind of love is by having Christ in your heart. We by nature, are not all accepting, all loving people. Our flesh embodies envy, hate, jealousy, anger, and more. Only through Christ and knowing him can we bear the fruits of the spirit and instead exhibit patience, kindness, love, understanding, and compassion.

You will see in my previous post, where Matthew talks about how easy it is to love those who love you. Even sinners do that! It’s a true test to love those who do not love you. Those who are evil love those who love them back. We are called to be different than them. We are to love everyone. 

This makes the distinction between us and those who do not follow Christ. You do not have to be a follower of Christ to love those who love you. But, to love those who hate you, that I feel is a true testament of having Christ in your heart as we all know how difficult it is to love those who hurt us.

You must first let go of and unforgiveness and bitterness in your heart to be able to show love to all people. Study and read the Bible. The more Christ you put in you; the more Christ will flow through you. 

Reflection: 

In what areas of your life can you exhibit more love? Who do you cross paths with that you can be more loving towards? Examine your heart and pray for God to reveal to you how you could show more love in your day-to-day life. Who do you need to forgive?

Prayer:

Dear Lord,

Thank you for your never-ending love, grace, and mercy. May we strive every day to portray the kind of God we serve. Help us to not only love those who love us, but love those who do not. We know we are called to love everyone, but that can be difficult without You. Show us areas in our life where we could do better showing love. Help us bear the fruits of the Spirit within us. Forgive us for not always showing love towards those who have wronged us. Help us find forgiveness in our hearts where needed, as we cannot embody love if we are holding onto unforgiveness and bitterness. Help us every day to do better to be more like you.

In your name we pray,

Amen