Loving People can be Difficult

Sometimes loving people is difficult, especially where there has been wounding and repeated injuries. Some of our closest relationships bring us to the edge of grace, to the precipice of our human stamina.  We don’t have what it takes to continue on in mercy and forgiveness.  Our humanity is so limited and our affections wane in the shadow of our pain.  And when trust is gone and hope is slipping down the slippery slope of fear, that’s when the Father steps in and says so gently, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”  2 Corinthians 12:9a

When we reach the end of ourselves, our Heavenly Father reminds us that HIS grace is enough—for us, for our situations, for our relationships and, really, everything. It’s so much easier to try to tap into our own capacity for mercy and forgiveness and love for others because we like to do things on our own but, in the end, anything that we can manage to muster up is minute, filled with conditions and limitations and honestly not truly eternal.  Trying to love people in our lives with our own love is actually dangerous because we are dependent upon our vacillating nature to steer the course. But the Father’s love is perfect, steady, abundant and never-ending.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”  1 John 4:7,8   Real love comes from God, and He is the Source of lasting and eternal love.  When God is not the Source of our love, hate and its counterparts can eventually creep in and become, at some point, a real option, BUT John warns against this is verses 20 and 21:  “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?  And this commandment we have from Him:  that he who loves God must love his brother also.”

Proverbs also cautions:  “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins.”  Proverbs 10:12   And even Peter refers back to this in 1 Peter 4:7,8:  “But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.  And above all things have fervent love for one another, for ‘love will cover a multitude of sins.’”

Today, if we find that we are at the end of ourselves in our relationships—GOOD.  Let’s allow the Lord’s love (which is full of unending grace, mercy, kindness, forgiveness, hope, etc) to take over.  Let’s allow His never-ending supply to fill us up and overflow to those around us so that the world will see and know that we belong to Him (John 13:34,35).