May You Be Known By Love
A reading for Tuesday, January 19, 2016: Matthew 18:23-35.
Perhaps this is a story for our age... this story of love and forgiveness. It seems sometimes that we are surrounded by malice. There is conflict between the nations, between cultures and religions. Terrorism inflicts fear each night on our televisions. There is conflict between races, and men versus women. Families live with stress, due largely to outside economic pressures and a media that berates us with messages of dissatisfaction and consumerism.
We are tempted to protect ourselves, to push others down, and to take what's ours... Like the servant in the lesson today that has been forgiven, who then goes out and punishes others, we want to take matters into our own hands.
But the Lord has treated us with kindness, compassion and forgiveness. We are not condemned for our selfishness, our violence, or our malice. If not ours, then the world around us. God has given us grace, forgiveness and peace. We are able to see beyond what afflicts us to the goodness of God who remains faithful to us even when we are not.
How will we treat others? How will we interact with the world? The Paul Field devotion today on the Northumbria website is particularly useful today in light of our lesson...
I challenge us, as Christians, in a world of malice to be known by our love. Today, tomorrow and all the days of our lives.
Perhaps this is a story for our age... this story of love and forgiveness. It seems sometimes that we are surrounded by malice. There is conflict between the nations, between cultures and religions. Terrorism inflicts fear each night on our televisions. There is conflict between races, and men versus women. Families live with stress, due largely to outside economic pressures and a media that berates us with messages of dissatisfaction and consumerism.
We are tempted to protect ourselves, to push others down, and to take what's ours... Like the servant in the lesson today that has been forgiven, who then goes out and punishes others, we want to take matters into our own hands.
But the Lord has treated us with kindness, compassion and forgiveness. We are not condemned for our selfishness, our violence, or our malice. If not ours, then the world around us. God has given us grace, forgiveness and peace. We are able to see beyond what afflicts us to the goodness of God who remains faithful to us even when we are not.
How will we treat others? How will we interact with the world? The Paul Field devotion today on the Northumbria website is particularly useful today in light of our lesson...
Go peaceful
in gentleness
through the violence of these days.
Give freely.
Show tenderness
in all your ways.
Through darkness,
in troubled times
let holiness be your aim.
Seek wisdom.
Let faithfulness
burn like a flame.
God speed you!
God lead you,
and keep you wrapped around His heart!
May you be known by love.
Be righteous.
Speak truthfully
in a world of greed and lies.
Show kindness.
See everyone
through heaven’s eyes.
God hold you,
enfold you,
and keep you wrapped around His heart.
May you be known by love.
I challenge us, as Christians, in a world of malice to be known by our love. Today, tomorrow and all the days of our lives.
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