9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.[c] Do not be conceited.
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”[d] says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”[e]
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
I have had this portion of Scripture running through my head a lot in the last week and maybe February 14th is a great time to talk about it.
This passage is called "Love in Action" in the New International Version. There are so many great reminders here about how we should CHOOSE to treat one another, but the highlighted part above is what I have had running through my mind.
Rejoice with those who are rejoicing.
It's not that this particular sentence is more important than the rest; it's just that I have seen so many people struggling to do it lately!
I am the type of person who hears something great that happened to someone else and I may have a thought like, "Oh wow! They got a new car! I can't wait for that day for us!" But very quickly I forget about me and I am just genuinely happy for them. I don't struggle with being bitter or envious, etc... I have sadly noticed though that this isn't the case for some Christians. They covet each other's homes, vacations, clothes, even their spiritual gifts!
A couple weeks ago we found out that my husband won a very nice award for being the top engineer in his region. He also won an expensive trip to a luxury resort in Mexico!
Of course we were rejoicing! My husband works HARD! He travels most days of the year and our entire family makes a lot of sacrifices to make that happen. In my opinion, he absolutely deserves this award, though he would tell you, award or not, he does his job not for the accolades of man, but for the glory of God.
This portion of Scripture came to my mind as I found myself hesitant to tell certain people about Tom's award because I new that they wouldn't just say congrats or be able to be happy for us, but they would say some remark about how nothing like that ever happens for them...blah, blah, blah.
I just don't get that. I get that life is hard and sometimes you don't get rewarded for hard work, but I don't understand not rejoicing with someone else.
I am a firm believer that our attitude determines our altitude, meaning how we appear, act, and react, will have much to do with how we are promoted in this world. Nobody enjoys being around grumblers and incessant complainers...Negative Nellie's and Oh-Woe-Is-Me Mildred's!
We all have choices each day to become part of the problem or part of the solution...to be faithful in the little so we can be trusted with much. And just what do we do when we feel like we have been faithful and have worked hard?
We trust God and we wait patiently, believing that if we do not grow weary in doing well, if we do not grow faint, in due time we shall reap our reward.
When our eyes are on the reward, they are often not on the Rewarder. How do we change that? We seek Him. Hebrews 11:6 says that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. We seek Him diligently...
dil·i·gent
[dil-i-juh
nt]
adjective
1.
constant in effort to accomplish something; attentive and persistent in doing anything: a diligent student.
2.
done or pursued with persevering attention; painstaking: a diligent search of the files.
I can't express how inspiring your blog is to me. Always touches my heart and struggle within. Thank you for following His lead to journal your thoughts.
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