Believe God's Love for Humanity--God was serious when He said that "love others" thing

    “I love humanity,” someone once said, “it’s people I don’t like.” (I think it was Linus Van Pelt!)
     In our world, we sometimes get bogged down by reality, by the nitty gritty, when it comes to actually putting things in practice.

    It’s easy in my daily quiet time to wax eloquent and write devotionals and espouse all the virtues of Christianity.

    But then, the sun rises, people wake up, and I have to deal with them! I don’t know how many times I had to apologize the other day, but apologies are best made beforehand by not doing something that you know that you know that you know that you are going to having to walk back later on and apologize for!

    One day our church’s assistant administrator, Kay, came into my office and I was smiling.
    “What?” she asked.
    “What, what?” I replied.
    “Why are you smiling?” she responded, a little hesitantly.
    “I am just trying to be pleasant!” I defended.

    Maybe it is because I need to smile more and it shocked her. Maybe it was because I was forcing myself to be pleasant. Maybe I was smiling like a guy I saw at Lowe’s the other day: every time I went down the aisle, I could see him before he even saw anyone else, he was smiling, smiling, smiling, at nothing in particular. Kind of creepy if you ask me, you know, to be that happy at Lowe’s!

    Or, maybe I (and I don’t think I am the only one) need to be reminded from time to time that God loves all of us and we need to be like Him. Loving God by loving people.

   Every human is a naturally born sinner and we need to accept that in others and accept it in ourselves. 

   If we are not perfect, we should not expect that of others. We need to see that all people are loved by God and need Jesus Christ as their Savior.
   Now I better end this devotional. The sun is about to rise and I got to deal with people!
    For some reason, Zondervan didn't send out a Devotional for Chapter 7 but here are the highlights.

Chapter 7: Humanity

KEY QUESTION:
How does God see us?

KEY VERSE

For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16)

KEY IDEA

I believe all people are loved by God and need Jesus Christ as their Savior.

KEY APPLICATION:
I value all human life and see people the way God sees them. As a result, I am compelled to tell all people about Jesus.

YOUR TURN

In your own words, describe how love for God and love for others are related. (You’ll find some ideas in Luke 10:25-37.)