“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” 1 John 4:7
Sometimes we need a “kick in the rear”, so to speak, and sometimes we need to give one. Always in Christ’s love.
“Get back to your writing!” exclaimed a beloved friend who works in the hotel where I am staying in my first stop out on the road full time for the Lord and ministry. She shared with me how the Lord is using it to reach her. And she made it abundantly clear I should go to my computer and get to work.
Less than 24 hours before, I had taken my two paralyzed dogs and their wheelchairs and my beloved dog without eyes Glory to the vet’s office to say goodbye to my dear sweet Glory whom I had had for years. I was so sad. So wiped out. From caring for her at the end, from sadness, not sleeping well, and much more. I could so easily have climbed into bed for the rest of the day and hidden under the covers, or gone off on errands or taken a long walk or do anything but go write. But the Lord had used my friend to give me a “kick in the rear” and go write whatever He would give me for that day.
Genuine love, Christ’s love, as expressed through Christ’s followers, is beautiful, powerful, refreshing, reminding, reviving, invigorating, revitalizing, productive, a catalyst, moving, life-giving, life-changing, teaching, encouraging, gentle but firm, tender and alive but steady and strong, etc., and it is also honest, and true, faithful and loyal, passionate and expressive, and so much more. It also, as expressed through His followers, can be challenging, confronting, convicting, chastening, sometimes hard to hear, and can feel like a “kick in the rear” in its strength, firmness, intensity, and, most importantly, in its truth from God. Sometimes a “kick in the rear” is exactly what we need to give – or receive – when its origin, its initiator, is God, and when it is given in His love.
We are wrong, and miss out, if we believe the Lord’s love for us and His messages for us when delivered through His children are never tough and confronting and are never intended to lead us to repent, to make a change, to press forward, to do something we are resisting, or are too scared to do, etc.
The Lord poured a great deal of writing through me that day through which He blessed me and hopefully others. And He reminded me a “kick in the rear” can be a true blessing.
Perhaps the Lord has sent someone to give you a “kick in the rear,” and you have resented that person rather than been thankful God sent the person and yielded yourself to God and His message. Or perhaps the Spirit of God has been nudging you to lovingly and firmly give a godly “kick in the rear” to someone else. The Lord’s “kicks” are led by His Spirit, given in His love, and in line with His Truth, the Word. Please don’t miss your opportunities.