"What do you see?"
What do you see, Jeremiah? He was asked what he saw by God. Jeremiah responded with what he saw in the Spirit.
What do we see in others? Do we see a friend, a neighbor, a brother or sister or do we see a threat, an enemy? Wherever Mother Teresa went, she saw and loved the people around her. She had a heart for the unlovable the ones who others would pass by and those shunned.
Who do we judge? Who do we fail to see? If we understood people's stories, even the most hard cases, we could love them, we could see them with our Spirit and heart..
Sometimes we see people's faults rather than their strengths. We are not for them but against them. We may read the words about love hoping all things, bearing all things and believing all things, but do we really live this?
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 says,
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. ..
Even when people are failing themselves and everyone around them, we can see them differently. We can see them by their potential and call it out of them rather than by their faults in judgement.
Hagar was trusted by Sarai to have her baby by her very own husband. Yet once she became pregnant, she despised Sarai. This hurt Sarai deeply and she responded by treating Hagar harshly and Hagar ran off to the desert.
God didn't judge her for failing her calling and running away or lecture her for treating Sarai with contempt. God saw her in her pain as who she really was and blessed her.
In Genesis 6:10-11 the angel of the Lord said to her, "I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count." The angel of the Lord said to her further, "Behold, you are with child, and you will bear a son; And you shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has given heed to your affliction."
She responded by calling on the name of the Lord who spoke with her, "You are a God who sees [me]." (Genesis 6:13)
To be more like Jesus is to see people as He sees them, bless them and be for them as He is.
Even when people are failing themselves and everyone around them, we can see them differently. We can see them by their potential and call it out of them rather than by their faults in judgement.
Hagar was trusted by Sarai to have her baby by her very own husband. Yet once she became pregnant, she despised Sarai. This hurt Sarai deeply and she responded by treating Hagar harshly and Hagar ran off to the desert.
God didn't judge her for failing her calling and running away or lecture her for treating Sarai with contempt. God saw her in her pain as who she really was and blessed her.
In Genesis 6:10-11 the angel of the Lord said to her, "I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count." The angel of the Lord said to her further, "Behold, you are with child, and you will bear a son; And you shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has given heed to your affliction."
She responded by calling on the name of the Lord who spoke with her, "You are a God who sees [me]." (Genesis 6:13)
To be more like Jesus is to see people as He sees them, bless them and be for them as He is.
Lord, I long to live this more in my actual life and not just in my thinking. Help us to see how you see and love those you love.
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