I am thinking of continuing my meditation on the theme "How should I live if I believe that God loves me?" I guess in hind-sight this is not some amazing revelation, but I know for me it's been a very healthy reflection. God's love for me should affect the way I live, and should be foundational for everything else. My thought yesterday was related to the example of Jesus, as God's Son, living a life of favor and relationship with the Father, and how His life experience should be a model for me.
Today I want to spend some time thinking about the ramifications of this being true in everyone's life - that God loves everyone! It is wonderful that I start to comprehend this truth for my own life, but equally important that I be a bearer of this message to everyone else. I am not to just be a bearer of the message, but also demonstrating this truth through my life. When I look at Jesus' I see Him doing exactly that, demonstrating to everyone their worth and value and the Father's affection for them. He was confident in the Father's love, and that enabled Him to perfectly express the Father's love to everyone else.
When I read through the Gospels I see Jesus interacting with each person individually. He was willing to stop and listen and interact with the lowliest person, the crippled and sick, the social outcasts, all the sinners. His perspective was that each was valued and worthy of His attention. I mean think about that, He is the Son of God, here to reveal the Father's love and defeat the works of the enemy, the most important person to ever walk the earth, and He stops and touches the leper, raises the widow's son back to life, gives sight to the blind and on and on. He took time from His precious three years of ministry to touch each of these people's lives, and in that we see the value that is given to them.
We have a saying that time is money, or maybe it would be better to say that time has value. So what is the value of 5 minutes of the Son of God's time? There are people that have bid millions of dollars to have lunch with Warren Buffet, I can't imagine the value of lunch with Jesus.
So if Jesus is expressing the value of the individuals He encountered, as a perfect representation of the Father's heart, should we not do the same? If our Father says all the people we encounter in our lives are valuable to Him and loved by Him, should we not treat them as such? If Jesus is the firstborn among many brothers and sisters (Rom 8:29) shouldn't we be treating those around us as our brothers and sisters? Jesus was demonstrating a lifestyle of loving service. Loving those who are loved by the Father and helping them to understand and experience the Father's love for them was a key part of Jesus' ministry. When I think back over the Gospels, I can't think of a time where Jesus wasn't operating in this mode.
I was thinking of some of the teachings of Jesus that are difficult to put into practice such as these verses from Matthew 5:16, 43-48 NIV:
[43] "In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. [43] “You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' [44] But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, [45] that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. [46] If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?[47] And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? [48] Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
When I think about these verses in light of my meditation, it makes sense that Jesus is teaching this, for that is exactly the Father's heart. He loves each of us, and desires each of us to understand His love for us. Jesus encourages us to be perfect as the Father is perfect, but what He was talking about was the Father loving everyone. We could rewrite verse 44 and 45 as follows, "But I tell you Love your enemies and love your neighbors, and pray for those who persecute you as well as those that you love, that you may all be children of Your Father in heaven." I don't think that is stretching His meaning too far at all. In this we begin to see the Father's heart, and represent His heart to those who don't know Him yet.
When I reflect on Jesus' example in all of this, I realize I have tons of room for growth and improvement. I am so quick to judge, so quick to form judgments, so quick to assume I know what a person is like before I ever even speak to them. I am quick to judge someone's motivation, their thinking and even their looks, and in this Jesus' example calls me to be more like the Father. He loved and ministered to them all, the lowliest and the rejected as well as the high and mighty, for He knew how much they were valued, treasured and loved, each and every one of them.
Lord, help me to live my life like You love me, and like You love those around me!
Amen!
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