Loving Thy Neighbor (When It’s Hard)

Hey lovelies, happy Wednesday! How are you feeling mentally, emotionally, and physically? Please share in the comments. Welcome to our Wednesday Bible study. The Lord placed this matter on my heart because truthfully, its been something He’s been teaching me firsthand. I have been convicted of not always being the best representation of  “loving thy neighbor”, but the Lord has indeed been pruning my heart. Let’s take some notes. Today’s verses are: Mark 12:29-31 from the KJV version. 

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Mark 12:29-31 KJV: “And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”

 

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Moment of Transparency: I have not always loved my neighbor. Who is my neighbor you may be wondering? My neighbor is my family, my neighbor could be my friends, and even my coworkers. I believed that depending on how they would treat me and/or made me feel would determine if they deserved love from me. My love was conditional and I did not even know it. It was a defense mechanism to protect myself whenever I felt mistreated or if the love felt unrequited. Have you ever exemplified conditional love to those around you? What if God had conditional love towards us? I know if that were the case, I’d be finito. He placed that revelation on my heart recently, which made me realize that I would be hard to love if God loved like us humans. I’ve come up short several times in my walk with God and He STILL chooses to love me. He doesn’t give up on His children so who are we to not love our neighbor when we receive an unexplainable amount of love from our Father? Now I am not saying tolerate being mistreated, set boundaries when and where necessary, but allow God to show you how you can still be a representation of love in any given situation. Did you know the Bible emphasizes us to love our neighbor several times? That’s how important it is to God. As referenced in Mark 12:29-31 [paraphrasing], Our first commandment is loving the Lord thy God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. Following that commandment is for us to love our neighbor as ourself. What does that look like? Well in short, I believe that means extending grace, forgiving (not seven but seventy times seven [Matthew 18:22]), serving them, being kind-hearted, being slow to anger. The list goes on, but most importantly loving our neighbor is humbly asking God to equip us to properly love them. People can be challenging to deal with, but God’s love can and will change all things. Be the difference that you want to see from those around you. Seek God to soften your heart and allow you to love others as He loves you. Love conquers all, and you’ll be surprised at how it can change the hearts of those around you as well. 

         

Reflection

  • Based on today’s study, who have you not been loving properly because to you, they are deemed “hard to love”? What makes it so hard for you to give them a Godly kind of love?
  • Today I challenge you to do something kind for the person you previously mentioned. Do not do anything begrudgingly, but allow the Holy Spirit to lead you. I challenge you to be a representation of God’s love to that person. You may find it difficult, but you have the privilege and advantage to change circumstances for the better. 

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank you for pruning our hearts. God we have been guilty of not loving our neighbor and because of that, we come to you with great repentance as we know this Your second greatest commandment to us. Lord God we ask that you guide us in loving our neighbors as ourselves. Where there is opportunity to be a representation of Your perfect love, help us to exemplify it. Help us to allow Your love to radiate off of us. Lord we pray that our love can and will change our circumstances with our neighbor for the better. We pray our love allows them to develop the yearning to seek you wholeheartedly for themselves. God you are a good good Father and we are grateful that You welcomed us as part of Your Kingdom with open arms. We thank You for loving us unconditionally, even when we found it hard to love ourselves. We thank You for sending Your only begotten Son, as a living sacrifice for us. God You are truly amazing and we are thankful that You are the perfect example of love.

In Jesus Name, we pray Amen. 

With Love,

Allison