Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Have you met somebody who you just thought, "Man, they just seem really fake"? Or perhaps you've had times where you walk up to somebody and you are just not thrilled about who they are in your life. So you put on this kind of fake smile, this fake persona. I love how practical the Word of God is—our verse today is so incredibly practical.
It's found in Romans chapter 12 and verse 9. This is what it says: "Don't just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good." Wow. "Don't just pretend to love others. Really love them."
I have to share a time when I was driving down the road—I struggle with loving other drivers. I don't know if you're with me, but I can struggle with loving other drivers. There was a time that it just seemed one thing after another: being cut off and a lot of things going on in traffic on the way to work, and just really wanting to get where I needed to go.
As I'm getting frustrated at other people and things not going well, and reflecting on things going on in life that just were not going well, I just felt overwhelmed by God impressing on me and asking me the question. He said, "David, what if you stopped seeing people through the lens of what they do to you and start seeing them for what I have done for them?"
Wow. That completely caught me off guard. And now I started viewing people differently—even whether it's in simple things, silly things like traffic, or more significant things in my life where people come along and hurt. We all have those people in our lives. Sometimes it's even personalities that we just don't click with, and we think, "Goodness, how in the world when that person comes to mind? How in the world can I live out this verse of not just pretending to love them, but really loving them?"
I would encourage you to stop, and instead of looking at them through the lens of what they're doing to you, start looking at them through the lens of what God has done for them. And what has He done for them? We all know He has sacrificed His Son for them. He's created them in His image as well, and it's such a powerful thing to keep in mind.
The latter part of this verse, though, it says "hate what is wrong, hold tightly to what is good." So, in the midst of loving everyone, it doesn't mean that we have to love everything. Hate what is wrong, and hold tightly to what is good. But at the same time, that's part of helping us love other people genuinely, and that is actually hold tightly to the good things that are in them.
Don't hold so tightly to what they do when they do us wrong. Isn't that right? It's so easy to hold tight to when they do us wrong, and forget about the good things that they do. But instead, look at them through that lens of what God has done for them.
I would just encourage you today, just take some time. Write a person's name down that came to mind—who you really have a hard time loving—and see what you can do to release the things that you struggle with. Find the good things in them and then look at them through the lens of what God has done for them. Try and see value in His sacrifice that He made for them and pray for them.
