As Brother Bill preached on I Peter 2:13-17 a thought went through my head and made me smile. "No matter how much I am despised by the world, I am free to love; especially those who dishonor and reject me, in order that they might come to receive Christ as their personal Savior and Lord."
16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants[c] of God.
This is the verse that brought the thought. It amazes me how much freedom we have that we do not use. (At least that I do not always use.) The freedom to love the unlovely, unlovable, hateful, seems like an awesome gift, yet we tend to choose to turn our backs and feel sorry for ourselves instead, which is no freedom, but rather enslavement to self-gratification. We want to "feel good" and when someone dishonors or rejects us, we feel uncomfortable to say the least, and angry usually. We must remember that, as long as we are behaving as children of God, as we are told to do in this verse, then it is not really us who are being rejected, but God in us Who is. If we remember this, we are free to continue loving and praying for their deliverance from sin's enslavement and prayerfully watch them become our brother/sister in Christ Jesus. If we forget, then we become trapped in self pity, doubt and fear, our prayers become hindered and we must come to the place of accepting the fact that we are wrong and get right before Father God.
It is my prayer that the true saints of God will rise up and pray for one another to walk in the freedom of love in every situation.
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