Loving Others

Do you ever have trouble loving others? We're commanded to love everyone, but there is always some difficult person out there that you know you're supposed to treat nicely and what not; but when it comes down to it, you kind of wish that he or she would just get out of town and move away.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:34-35)

Of course we're supposed to ask God for help in these instances, but often were are given the help in God's word before we ask it -- we just have to look. Check out this verse below:

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:9-12)

Did you catch that part about loving others? "Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." It's because of God's love that we can even love others in the first place. So if you're having difficulty loving that one person in your life (or two or three or four people), then pause and take a moment to focus on God's love for you. This is our fountain and our source; the electric outlet we need to plus into in order to light the lamp. And then, once we get the power we need, we can shine the love of God to a world that doesn't see him at all, making him known with a strength beyond our own.