Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Obeying God when obeying isn’t easy”
Our Bible verse for today: “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Matthew 5:44 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “We disobey God when we mistreat people.”
One of the areas in which many Christians disobey God the most is in how they treat other people. We are nice to those we like and to those who are nice to us, but how about to those we don’t like, or worse, to those who are not nice to us? Being nice to them is often not so easy and yet, in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus specifically instructed us to show love for those very people and to pray for them.
Ugh! I hate that. When dealing with someone I dislike my natural tendency is to be snippy and snarky. And if someone has just been mean to me? Better watch out because you’re going to get it right back! That’s just basic human nature and you really can’t blame me, right? But wait, as Christians we’re not supposed to be governed by our “human” nature, we’re supposed to be led by the “Spirit” nature. I’m a new man in Christ, remember? The fruit of the Holy Spirit is supposed to be alive and thriving in me, right? The fact is that Jesus calls for a different kind of response from His followers.
The great devotional writer Oswald Chambers had an interesting insight into this: “We see the humor of our heavenly Father in the way He brings around us the type of people who are to us what we have been to Him; now He will watch to see how we behave to them. How did Jesus treat us? With infinite patience, with amplitude of forgiveness and generosity. Then He says that we are to treat them in the same way.”
Could Chambers be right? Could it be that the things I find so annoying in other people are the very things God finds annoying about me? And yet He deals with me with infinite patience, grace, and mercy. Ok, so I guess I’d better do the same for others. Why? Because …. “If you don’t forgive people, your Father will not forgive your wrongdoing.” Matthew 6:15 (HCSB)
Loving those who are hard to love and being nice to those who aren’t nice, isn’t easy, but it is what God expects of us.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 