My prayer for you is the same as Paul prayed for the believers in Ephesus:
“May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love really is” (Ephesians 3:17,18).
We have the potential to love anyone God puts in our path. One of the greatest lessons I have learned in my Christian life is “how to love by faith.” We may think we have lost our love for our spouse, for example. Yet when we love by faith and invite God’s unconditional love for an “unlovable” spouse to flow through us, we will discover a rekindled love that is alive and well. That is true as well for an “unlovable” boss, associate, or employee. Nothing breaks up the hardened ground of unforgiveness and bitterness like sincere acts and words of love.
Sometimes you and I must take the first step of restoration, by faith, to love. A positive response from others may not always be immediate, but keep on choosing by faith to love and reach out. There is no power on earth stronger than supernatural love.
An attorney came to my office at Arrowhead Springs, California, one day to complain that he just could not get along with one of his partners. They hated each other, he reported. So I suggested he tell his partner that he loved him and ask him for forgiveness for not loving him.
“I could never do that,” he protested. But after I explained the concept of how to love by faith, he agreed to approach his partner. He went into the office early the next morning and said to his partner:
“Some time ago I became a Christian and my critical attitude toward you has changed. I’ve come to ask you to forgive me and to tell you that I love you.”
His partner practically fell out of his chair because he was so amazed at the dramatically changed attitude of the man before him. He asked, “How can I have what you have?” The attorney led his partner to faith in Christ, and they became good friends. A few days later they came to tell me of the miracle of their reconciliation and of God’s supernatural love.
Begin right now to love by faith. Make a list of everyone you do not like or have a hard time loving or those who have hurt you. Perhaps your list will include your boss, a coworker, your spouse, your children, a parent, a fellow believer, or a neighbor. Now ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with love for that person and claim by faith Christ’s great love for them. Then the next time you meet them, by faith draw upon God’s limitless, inexhaustible, overwhelming love for them. Through the enabling of the Holy Spirit, demonstrate your love by your actions.
“May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love really is” (Ephesians 3:17,18).
By Bill Bright, GOD, Who Are You Anyway?
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