Great Blog I love

“I heard the great preacher, Warren Wiersbe once say that love isn’t a feeling we conjure up, it’s treating others the way God treats us. If God is merciful to us, we should show mercy. If God is generous with us, we should be generous with others. If God holds out hope for us, we should hold out hope for others…When we say we’ve given up hope for an individual or a culture or a people group, we’re not saying as much about them as we’re saying that God cannot overcome the evil in their hearts. It’s a poor testimony to give up hope and we live a greater testimony than that…I’ve stopped bouncing tennis ball prayers against God’s wall. When others mistreat me, I hit my knees and ask Him to increase my faith, my love, my tolerance for mistreatment and ingratitude so I can better represent Him even through trial.”

From an excellent post I read this morning by my friend, Lori Stanley Roeleveld.

I was reminded of the parable in Luke 17:6-10 about the servant who does not expect gratitude from the master. He was just doing his job. “So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done'” (Luke 17:10 NASB).

The Kingdom of God is opposite to what we crave as human beings. We want recognition, appreciation, and reward. And when we don’t get it…well, we view it as a personal injury. That entitlement does not stand in the example Jesus gave us, however. “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35 NASB). You can hear the New Hope Chapel podcast on that passage (from my friend and fellow teaching team member, Joanne Hagemeyer).

This is one concept that I have to keep banging into my thick skull. It just goes against the grain on so many levels.