Day 253: November 9, 2016 Love Unifies Beyond Candidates

November 9, 2016

Day 253

Love Unifies Beyond Candidates

Jesus asks me to love my enemies. He asks me to be kind. He asks me to be patient. He asks me to put me aside, not be arrogant. And He asks me to not be rude. He tells me to give up my insistence for my own way. He asks me to not be irritable and resentful. He tells me to not rejoice at wrongdoing and encourages me to rejoice with the truth. He asks me to bear all things. He even asks me to believe all things. He asks me to hope all things and He asks me to endure all things. And He knows I can not do it. 

It is early Wednesday morning, I should be sleeping and yet I am watching the election. The Body I am part of is united by Jesus Christ yet divided by politics. And I LOVE that He allows this. I love His Body, my Body. I love the diversity of us. We will never unite on our personal issues. But rather I love the focal point of unity, Jesus, Emmanuel. And I love the fact that the focal point has never been our political views. Can you imagine? 

Today the Body of Christ is asked to walk out from the ultimate sacrifice and allow Jesus, by His Spirit, to do the work of love. He is willing to do the hard work for us. For He is love, the greatest, beyond faith and hope. And it is faith and hope which we do, but only with the power of His resurrected Body. His death and His resurrection allow us to walk in His peace, the focus of faith and hope. What doesn't He do for us? 

It is easy to be unkind, to be impatient, to be arrogant, to be rude, to insist on my own way, to be irritable, resentful, to rejoice in wrongdoing and to basically GIVE UP.  The spiritual muscle it takes to do the hard work of love is Jesus. He is the muscle I am to use, mine has atrophied. Jesus knows no pride and asks me to hand it in. He wants and can love through me. Who knew this was possible? He did. Before the world began, He knew.

So, I am free to move aside and allow Him to substitute, to be my identification. Though it cost His life. Faith, hope and LOVE has never and will never be hard or impossible for Him.

To those of you who have left the faith, we miss you. You are important and your reasons for leaving are important. The real test of christianity is love and if you do not feel loved by the group at large or even by some significant individuals, you are not with the mature, please know that. Maturity in Christ is how well someone sacrificially loves. We are a motley group growing up into maturity and it unfortunately looks quite immature. One way to know if someone truly desires to walk in Jesus' way is if you can have an open conversation with them about why you left. The Door is always open.

My prayer is that this election will be used for good. I know many of my Body is mourning the loss while many of my Body is rejoicing the victory. We are free to do both as our unity does not depend on our views. Today let's focus on the unifier, LOVE! And then let's walk it out. We, the Body, must stay united on Jesus alone.