In loving others.

To be Christ-like is to acknowledge Jesus in others. In my travels I meet many precious men and women whom I know are given wholly to the Lord. The moment I meet them, my heart leaps. Even though we’ve never met before, I have a witness from the Holy Spirit that they are full of Christ.

I can still see some of their faces: pastors, bishops, poor street evangelists. And the moment I met them, I realized without a word being spoken, “This man has been with Jesus. This woman is satisfied in Christ.” In greeting them, I always say the one thing I would want othes to say of me: “Brother, sister, I see Jesus in you.”
Christ-likeness has to do with how I treat those outside my family, loving others as he loves us. Yet it also means loving our enemies—those who hate us, who despitefully use us, who aren’t capable of loving us. And we’re to do this expecting nothing in return. Loving this way is impossible, in human terms. There aren’t any how-to books, any sets of principles, or any amount of human intelligence to show us how to love our enemies as Christ loved us. Yet we are commanded to do it. And we are to do it with an ever-increasing purpose.

So, how do we do it? How do I love the Muslim who spit in my face a block from our church? How do I love the people who run Internet websites calling me a false prophet? How do I love homosexuals who parade down Fifth Avenue carrying signs declaring, “Jesus Was Gay”? How do I truly love them in Christ? I don’t even know how to love other Christians in my own ability.
It has to be the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus prayed to the Father, “That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26). Christ asks the Father to put his love in us. And he promises that the Holy Spirit will show us how to live out that love.
The Holy Ghost will faithfully gather up all the ways Christ loved others and show it to you (John 16:15). Indeed, the Spirit delights in showing us more of Jesus. It’s the reason he dwells in our bodily temples: to teach Christ to us. “Ye shall know him: for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you…He shall teach you all things” (John 14:17:26).

-David Wilkerson

Lord, teach me this kind of love. Clothe me in humility so that others may come to seek you.

Jeremiah 12:5 (New International Version)

God's Answer

5 "If you have raced with men on foot

and they have worn you out,

how can you compete with horses?

If you stumble in safe country, [a]

how will you manage in the thickets by [b] the Jordan?

If I don't choose to surrender, worship, love him now when it's all good and life is a cruise, how will I be able to do all those things when it gets difficult? How will I love people if I can't love them when I do wrong to them?

God, help me to stand when everyone sits. Help me to run when everyone is still. Help me to love when no one wants to.