Lenten Reader | Day 5

Have you ever surprised yourself at how you handled a situation that needed kindness or mercy or forgiveness…. and it happened? That’s the best kind of experience. When you know without a doubt that God ‘showed up’ and helped you fulfill a daunting command to be like Jesus so he will be glorified as your Master.

Sometimes I get caught up in taking inventory of my life to see what I have to offer in the name of loving others. It starts out so innocently – in prayer, saying something like, “Lord, I give you my finances, my time, my agenda…,” but then the hypotheticals creep in through my wonderful, God-given imagination. People, projects, possibilities. But usually centered around my inventory. Don’t get me wrong, people definitely feel loved and seen with a much-needed donated car or a person who will meet a childcare need last minute. I guess God has been showing me lately that I have been short-changing myself by how I see his command to love as He loves us.

It was not all about sacrifice and giving up my life with its exhaustive inventory. It is about recognizing that He lived His life through the Father. His reliance was on being one with and doing the work of His Father. “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness – so we can participate in his divine nature” (2 Peter 1:3-4). I want to love out of the source I receive as a new creation who enjoys fellowship with Yahweh – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Maybe the command is new because the source is new. No longer an ‘Imago Dei’ with a stone heart, but a divine partaker with a heart of flesh. I want to look in eyes, not at issues. I want to love as Jesus loves me.

Jennifer Bowman