Love, Respect, and Grace

Love Respect and Grace…

Living The Message – Our Weapons Of Grace…

John 13:34 – “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

Simple and straightforward right? Then why is it we, as Christians, have so much trouble finding in our hearts to love one another?

Grandfather would always remind us that when Jesus walked the earth He never had a problem loving people or sharing love with anyone. That brings us to the theme of a Christian life – Love and Respect.

We are always going to find something or someone to disagree with and often we tend to get a tad judgemental when they look, talk and think differently than we do.

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12

If we treat everyone as we would like to be treated, we are showing respect for them as individuals to have their thoughts and beliefs as we would like them to respect ours.

So that brings us to our weapons of grace.. Love and Respect. We are commanded to go out into the world to share His message and light our lights so others can see Him and open their hearts to Him. We do this through grace using love and respect.

Grandfather always preached the golden rule: Treat others as you would like to be treated. Respect others and they will respect you. Then he added this statement: No matter what you do or no matter what you say, love isn’t love until you give it away.

Our job is to lift others up and shine our lights, not tell them how wrong they are. We are living examples of Jesus, so we need to live our life as He did.

1 Peter 4:8: Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Ephesians 5:21: Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Heavenly Father, we come before You with humble hearts, grateful for the new command given to us by Your Son, Jesus Christ: to love one another as He has loved us. We confess, Lord, that we often falter in this, allowing differences and judgments to cloud our ability to extend grace. Help us to embody the love and respect that are our weapons of grace. Guide us by Your Spirit to treat all as we would wish to be treated, to listen with open hearts, and to speak with kindness. May our lives be living examples of Your love, shining Your light brightly in a world that so desperately needs it. Empower us to lift others up, to cover a multitude of sins with our love, and to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. May everything we do and say be an act of giving Your love away, for truly, love isn’t love until it is given away. Amen.

Our greatest strength in sharing His message is not in telling others how wrong they are, but in living as He lived: radiating love and respect, for love isn’t love until you give it away.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed 🙏🏼