Loving them all…

The dad in a family that has become our family became a Christian in a country that does not tolerate Christians. His family beat him, nearly killed him. He fled to another country and lived there for a decade. He and his wife were able to work and bore three children before realizing they had to move again. Now in Canada, they enjoy the freedom of being able to worship Jesus without threat.

This persecution still happens in many places in the world. Jesus predicted it to the degree that even fathers would give their children up to death and children their parents:

And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. (Mark 13:12)

Being a child of God does not guarantee health, wealth, and a comfortable life. Not every family escapes it as our friends did. In today’s devotional, Piper uses the words of Jesus about children to point to my responsibility toward the children of God:

Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me. (Mark 9:37)

For me, the point isn’t that I’m to give particular care to youngsters who know God, but to His children of any age who believe in Him. I have favorites, but there are a few in His family that irk me for various reasons, or I don’t enjoy being around them for various reasons. God is using this devotional to speak to my sinful attitude.

Piper says: “The question is not whether caring for children is easy and safe, or whether they are responsive and thankful, or whether caring is depleting. The question is whether Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

In other words, I need to do what He says, and I cannot use any excuse such as ‘this is too hard’ because the Bible is clear. Not only did Jesus want loving attitudes toward little ones, but also adults, for we all are His children. Besides that, Jesus is still available to enable such love. The Bible says these truths for my situation:

I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14–19)
I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. (1 Timothy 1:12–16)

PRAY: Loving others is always about being filled with Your Spirit, never about them being lovable. Certainly You do not find me lovable. Love is who You are and that should be who I am, in Christ. The love of Christ goes beyond knowledge and beyond reasons. I appreciate the depth of fellowship with many and am not thrilled about the lack of that with others, but You died for all — meaning my old nature died with You and You have given me the Holy Spirit to enable me to love Your children — all of them and all ages.