God's Love Not Mine

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The news kept blaring tragedy at me yesterday. From my phone, computer, TV, more images of destruction and calamity filled my day. By the time night fell, I was feeling suffocated by it all. By my inability to do anything to help. I cannot get rid of racism. I cannot stop the rioting and looting. I cannot bring all those lost back and I cannot control the actions our government takes. 

    So I jumped in the shower in an attempt to clear my head. As I got ready for bed, I silently prayed to God, "Lord, what am I supposed to do?" Silence. It wasn't like I expected an answer out loud but I guess I wished for one. I started mulling the question over in my head, wondering what He would say if He did answer out loud. Eventually I came to a conclusion.

Love and leave the rest to me. 

     I don't mean that to sound like He wouldn't want me to speak out against injustice or against destruction. But we are simply human and a large part of our issues in these last few days stems from one thing. Our inability to fix the world. We call for change as if we could overnight convert the whole world to our way of thinking. Sadly, that is not possible. The world will continue to be filled with hate and injustice until Jesus Christ returns. And the best I can do until then is contribute to the little light we have left.

With His love, not mine.

      His love. Because human love is flawed. Human love is filled with conditions and grudges and greed and worst of all, affection for sin. We as humans by nature love sin. We love to accept it, to tolerate it, to make it feel welcome. That's why I cannot love with my love. I need to love with His love. His love is full of justice and peace and it is pure. I will never be capable of fully expressing it because I am not God. But I can try to be a tool of love in his hands. Love even to those killing in the name of justice, love to those filled with racism, and love to those who hate Him. 

    Christians in America tend to be polarized in terms of politics. They pick a side, a party or a politician, and defend them with their dying breath, when what we should be doing is defending Christ till our dying breath.  Romans 12:9 says "Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good." Too often  do we skip over the genuine love part, and go straight to abhorring what is evil. Yes, let us hate sin, but let us also try and show those who still live in sin the love of God, along with His righteousness. Let us "hold fast to what is good" amidst a world whose political sphere has become corrupt, whether it is the left or the right. 

    Most importantly, we need to love in our actions, not just in our words. (1 John 3:18) It's easy for us to post an Instagram or write a blog post (ahem). But how often do we put this love into practice? How often do we sit down and get to know someone who does not know Christ before we begin our memorized speech of the ABCs of conversion? How often do we go out into the neighborhoods that we normally drive through a little faster with our doors locked and try and speak truth? Are we the kinds of Christians that a non-Christian can approach without fear of harshness? Can someone sit down and tell us "I need help, I don't understand." no matter who they are or what they look like? These are the questions we should ask ourselves in the middle of all this racial tension going on right now, in the middle of battles between liberals and conservatives. 

 Does our love look like Christ's, made of truth and compassion, or the version of love we humans have created? 

    They aren't easy questions to answer, and we will fail. But we need to pray that God will give us His love, through our sinful hearts. That He will use us to be different from the rest of the world, and that we may offer a light in a far too dark time.  

 Thank you for reading! Leave your thoughts in the comments and share this if you enjoyed  it! 



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