How to Reach Out to Others – With Love, By Hillary-Beth Koenig

How to Reach Out to Others – With Love 

 By Hillary-Beth Koenig

Part 1: Viewing Others As God Sees Them

There’s the girl in class that always acts like a snob, the boy next door that always breaks stuff when he comes over, the man at the nursing home who yells a lot for no reason, the toddler that is so selfish she can’t let anyone sleep tonight, the old lady at the store that glares when she rings up the merchandise, the teacher that never smiles or answers gently, the girl at church who can’t seem to say anything nice, and the sibling that constantly teases and taunts in a way that frustrates and annoys...how do we love these people? Probably none of the ones in that list sound loveable! How do we reach out to them with God's love and show them the way?
1.       You do see their sin. God in His perfect love has to judge us against the Law, which shows we are sinners. He, being perfect love, does not act like we aren’t sinners; He does not act like there’s no problem, or like there’s no pain going to come from our sin. He tells us the truth, but He doesn’t leave us there. He worked through the ages to bring us hope – Jesus died for our sins, and rose again to give us eternal life, if we believe! Romans 3:23; Romans 5:21
2.       You do see their worth as God’s creation. God tells us we are fearfully and wonderfully made! We are made in His image, and we are precious in His sight! He loves us so much that He cares about the details in our lives – like when we get up, when we go to bed, when we cry, even what we think about! He cares about us more than He even cares about the birds and flowers we see, and look how much He has provided for them in every way!  Psalm 139
3.       You choose to love them despite their sin, just as God sees us. That is, God chose to love us while we were still filthy, dirty, proud sinners. He gave it all for us – Jesus sacrificed His life for us, and willingly took on the sin of the world – along with the shame, pain, and awfulness of our sins. If God could give us such love despite how much we deserved the punishment, can we do anything but give all we can to show love to those He puts in our lives? It might hurt sometimes, it might get messy sometimes, it might take some sacrifices, but once we view others as God sees them, it will be worth it! 1 John 4:19
We have to see past their sins and to their souls.  We are just like the very people that hurt us, annoy us, treat us unfairly,  are selfish...we are sinners. If it were not for God's grace, we would not have Jesus as our Savior! It is an honor, a duty, and a blessing to tell others about this change God gives in our hearts when we love like Jesus does.