Love Everyone!!          Excuse Me?

No can do!

True Confession~I do not like everyone I am around. There are a number of reasons, some of which if I shared..you wouldn’t like them either. Dare I say if you told me stories, I wouldn’t like some of the folks around you as well!

But wait a minute, aren’t we suppose to like everyone and even love everyone we come in contact with as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ?
There in lies the issue. I, capital I, cannot. My flesh is weak. Therefore I have to come to some conclusions.

Shall I “pretend” that I like that person that has lied to me for several years, talks about me to others and acts like she is my best friend when she is around me? I am really bad at “pretending”. I am one of those people that wears her feelings on her shirt sleeve.

Soooo, I figured it out a long time ago. Actually The Father let me see what I was to do. Admit that I DID not like them…to myself. Surrender to it, give it up, stop trying to like them.

Just
Admit
that…..

John 15:5 “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. “ (I would read all of John)

So see, unless we surrender our lives and “unlike” to Christ, we ourselves do not have the ability to  like someone, much less love them! I cannot summon the “phileo” love for my sister, because it is in my own power. I can only do it through Christ. This is “agape” love.

The missionary James Hudson Taylor called it “the exchanged life.” We surrender our life to Jesus to the extent that when we abide in Christ, he loves others through us. We can endure rejection because of Jesus.

I know that I have experienced this surrender when I find myself talking to someone as though I love them…..then wonder where those words came from later. One of these “unlikables” calls me needing some advice and help…and gulp! I give it to them. Surrender is the only way.

It is not pretending…I cannot do that…but surrender. That I can do.

Be blessed~
IN CHRIST ALONE

Isaiah 55:8-9

*google search, google image, NIV Bible*