It’s the Little Things
I know this isn’t the “official” verse for today, but it fit so well that I had to use it.
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me…
Matthew 25:35 – ESV
We have been learning about loving our enemies this week, and this verse in Matthew gives us a practical way to do it.
Service.
You can serve someone while grumbling. You can set out to help them and let it create bitterness in your heart… but you can also set out to serve them and pray that God will use that time to change your heart towards them.
And while you are doing these acts of service, you can pray for them. After all, it’s pretty hard to hate someone when you are lifting them up before God.
Feed them. Give them something to drink. Welcome them into your life. Smile. Bring their trash can in from the road. Mow their grass. Buy them a cup of coffee. Get to know the person behind the facade – you might be surprised to find out that their circumstances aren’t that different from yours… and that what has hurt you was simply a knee-jerk reaction on their part. Who knows, you may even find a friend.
Yes it’s hard. Yes it takes sacrifice on your part. Yes it takes an act of God in your life because it’s not the natural human reaction.
It’s the God reaction.
And if you need to, consider it a way to strengthen your faith… because it will if you let it. And it will also serve to help you be more like Christ. To be known by His love.
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DJ and I got a perfect opportunity to talk about being kind and loving others while sitting in the accident traffic today. We slowed and allowed several cars to merge in front of us so they could get off the freeway. DJ asked why I kept doing it when no one else would. I was able to explain that we had blessed these people and how do we know how we may have helped them? Hopefully they would pay it forward and do a kind deed for someone else today.
You’ve gotta love those teachable moments! Sometimes they come along and I have NO IDEA how to use them, but other times it just works.
God is so good.
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