Love Support

¹² Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. ¹³ Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. ¹⁴ And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. ¹⁵ Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.

¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray continually, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:12-18 

So often it is easy for us to judge and criticize others.  We think of how we could do something better or think of a better way to accomplish something.  How we convey that message is not always the best way.  Many of us are guilty of “chewing on shoe leather” when it comes to speaking before we think.  Many times we wish we had said or done something differently to take back the hurt we have caused inadvertently when speaking our minds.  

God wants us to recognize those working hard to bring about His will in this world – even if what they are doing makes us see another side of ourselves that we would rather not see or acknowledge exists.  We need to continue to love God’s workers, even if we don’t necessarily like or agree with the way God is using them to do His will.  We also need to encourage one another in love - to speak to each other the way we would like to be spoken to.  Remember the golden rule we all learned as children - “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  We would hurt a lot fewer people’s feelings if we would remember this motto from long ago and actually live by it at all times. 

We are also to help others that aren’t as strong as us – this is both physically and spiritually.  Someone may be very strong and be able to accomplish great feats physically, but spiritually, they may be very weak and need love and support to see them through difficult times in their faith lives.  I’m sure that many strong men and women have been brought to their knees during a crisis in their life, at which point they really need the strong faith and emotional support of others to get them through and show them that God is still with them. 

Finally, we need to be patient with everyone.  This is probably one of the hardest things for all of us.  Patience is a virtue that, when anger threatens to come through the door to our emotions, is hardest to hold on to.  Human nature still likes the old “eye for an eye” mentality – revenge is thought to be “sweet,” yet rarely do we find total satisfaction in making others feel similar pain to ours in retaliation.  We still feel that pain from the original hurt, regardless of how the other person is punished.  We always feel better when doing good, so repay wrong with kindness and love.  Perhaps by doing this, those doing wrong will see the joy of Christ in us and be drawn from the “dark” into the “light” of Christian life. 

Prayer 

Lord, We are so human and You are so divine!  Our nature is so contradictory to Your will in our lives.  Help us to let go of our nature of pride and make us humbly accept Your will – to show love at all times to all people.  Help us not to “stir the pot,” but to bring calm to the troubled waters in our midst.  Help us to always rejoice in all circumstances and continually lift up all aspects of our lives to You in prayer so that we can live and be more like Christ.  Amen.

~ Wendy Miller