Just What I Need

There is a church about 5 minutes down the street from me that I have been curious about for some time. I had briefly met the pastor's wife and have heard many good things about the church. This morning I woke up at 11:04 am, decided to visit the church, quickly got ready, and made it over there only a little bit late- just in time for the sermon to begin. The young adults pastor (Josh) spoke about John 15. It was exactly what I needed to hear. Isn't it amazing how God does that? He knows exactly what we need and when we need it.
Josh's main point was that we can remain in Christ by obeying His commands which include loving each other as He has loved us. The specific passage did not say that we can remain in Christ by reading the Word or by praying. It said we remain in Him by obeying His command to love one another as He has loved us. Towards the end of the message, Josh gave us 3 practical ways we can love others. 1) providing for needs, 2) words of affirmation/encouragement, and 3) suffering for another. The third one really hit me and I definitely needed to hear what Josh said as he expanded on that. He said that one form of suffering for another is to forgive someone when they do not deserve that forgiveness. He talked about how it is tough to forgive someone who has hurt us. We tend to want our rights. We want to hold that grudge or that pride or that record of wrongs. I was reminded of my Savior's love for me and His forgiveness of my sin and failure- that I do not in any way deserve. Then I began to think about some long-time friends who have not been that great at keeping in touch w/ me since I moved here. In the past few weeks, I have really been seeking the Lord about my attitude towards them. I've known that I have unforgiveness towards them though they may not even be doing anything wrong intentionally. Today I feel like I once again forgave them and realized that I have the ability, through Christ, to love them no matter what. To have a loving, kind, sincere heart attitude towards them whether they ever return my phone calls and emails or not. Even if I never hear from them again, I can LOVE them in my heart. I can choose to think of them as Christ thinks of me. And you know what? I feel so FREE. The Lord knew I needed to hear that message today. I have no plans right now to change churches. I was just curious to see what was going on in that building and headed over. Thank goodness the Lord put that on my heart because I heard just what I needed.

John 15: 9-12 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you."