“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
I know lots about loss. I’ve lost lots. Lots of people. Lots of loved ones. Lots of family. Lots of relationships. Lots of marriages. Lots of friends. Sometimes I feel like my life has been more about loss than anything else. But then I open my heart and eyes and see the truth. My life more than anything has been about learning how to let go of holding onto this world for dear life and learning how to believe in and follow and hold on for dear life to the Lord Jesus Christ and in and through His love to learn to love others the way He desires and to help them to find and follow Him forever. So I shouldn’t have been surprised one day when the Holy Spirit spoke some amazingly powerful words to my heart.
“Instead of focusing on what you’ve lost [because of and from them], focus on what they need.” Wow.
Years ago, when I had foolishly, wickedly, wrongly, desperately, dangerously, and would have ultimately been fatally practicing a false religion, I picked up a perverted version of a truth that we all desperately need to hear. The false doctrine of this false religion that believed in a false god basically taught that in our own human strength we need to have compassion for those that hurt us because they, too, have their needs. It is true we need to have compassion, but this compassion must come in the love and strength of Christ and can only truly be conveyed and manifest in godly love and service by the Spirit of God through the Word of God in the power of God for the glory of God.
Fast forward to where I am today in Christ. The Lord is by His Spirit teaching me how to see those who have hurt me as people in need of Christ. Whether they do not yet know Him and need to hear the Gospel message and be prayed for, or whether they profess to believe in Christ as Lord but like all of us are fallible humans ever needing to be refined by God and transformed by His Spirit through the Bible and to thereby grow in the image of God, they, like all of us, have needs. Yes, no matter how much they hurt us in the past or even continue to hurt us!
So often I’ve heard, “I don’t have to be a doormat,” “I don’t have to put up with that abuse,” “God would never want me to be abused,” etc. This is true, BUT even if God calls us to walk away from someone, we need TO LOVE, FORGIVE, PRAY FOR, HELP, GIVE TO, AND SERVE that person IN HIS LOVE as He leads us. When did Jesus Christ die on the cross for us? While we were sinners! When are we commanded to love others, even those hurting us? Now! We are all sinners! We all need His love! We all need to love others in Christ unconditionally. For God’s sake!