If I’m being honest, this has been a difficult devotion to write. It is almost like I feel hypocritical encouraging you all to love like Jesus does, when I struggle to do it myself. But knowing I, like you, am a sinner/saint, I can struggle and still encourage at the same time. We all better be able to do that because the pressure to love perfectly is not on us. It was taken off our shoulders when Jesus hung on that cross. We will fall short. We will fail. But forgiven in Christ we can always ask God for a heart that beats first for him and secondly, for others.

Children have a good sense of how to love.

“But he took my blocks!”, “She skipped me in line!”, “I had that first!” and so on and so on.

Isn’t it funny how little kids can be mad one second and best friends the next? How impressive is that kind of quick forgiveness? You see it in the classroom all the time. Friends can be mad at each other during carpet time, but then attached at the hip once they get out on the playground.

When does that change? When does that become so hard? To freely forgive. I do not know about you, but I struggle with forgiveness sometimes. I struggle to freely forgive those who hurt me or make my life hard. And yet, “…since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

How can we not? How can we not show that kind of love to one another?

He provides. He is faithful. Honest. Loving. Merciful. True. Caring. Kind.

Wouldn’t it be amazing to perfectly be faithful, honest, loving, merciful, true, caring, kind? What if the world was like that? What if we, as Christians, led the way? All the time? What a beautiful world that would be.

It seems like such a simple constant, yet it might just be one of the hardest things to do.

I am going to encourage you to stay in the Word. When loving others becomes hard, dive deep in the Word and be reminded of his love for you. Shift the focus off your shortcomings and instead, place it all on his amazing love.

Open the Old Testament and be reminded of his faithfulness to His people.

Open the New Testament and be in awe of his love to the ones who were loved the least.

He is the perfect example. He has an unbroken track record of his love for you. A love that forgives us freely so we too can love.

A love like that. How can we not?