Loving Who’s in Front of Us

Loving people.  It’s not always easy is it?  When Jesus was asked by the religious teachers what was His greatest commandment, He quoted Deuteronomy 6:5-6 “LOVE the Lord Your God with all your heart, all your mind and all of your strength.”  And the 2^nd greatest commandment Jesus gave right after that, He quoted from Leviticus 19, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  When we really love God, it becomes our joy to obey the things He says to do.  When we love people they way that we ourselves want to be loved, we are obeying Him.  But, how do you & I do that in a rubber-meets-the-road sort of way?  What if people are hard to deal with?  What if people are rude to us or throw proverbial stones our way?  What if people are harsh?  What if we disagree with their ways or thinking or attitudes?  The answer to our inability to love is Jesus Himself.  Not one of us can love completely and unconditionally without His ability coursing through our veins.  The ability to truly love the unlovable is not natural to us at all; it is super-natural.  What it will take to heal the breeches in our society will be super-natural!  The one and only Christ Jesus, the Messiah, sets the ultimate example of love for us.  He is the way, the truth and the life.  His love never fails nor weakens nor diminishes over time.  He Himself is love. And He is the One who will enable you & I to love who is in front of us in the next moment…no matter who they are.  Maybe we can’t imagine loving everyone in the world, but can we trust God enough to really love who is in front of us right now?  God sent Jesus into the world because He loved us so much, Jesus went to the cross because He loved us so much, and we can be set free to really love others when we love Him with all that we are.