Love Over Hate: The Power of Encouragement.

Choose Love

What do you get when you make love a priority? What happens when you choose love over hate? I’m not talking about human love. I’m not talking about the eros love that the world talks about — I’m talking about agape love. The love that Jesus commands us to do.

“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” — Matthew 5:44

In my own life I’ve been having some negative thoughts about someone that I work with in ministry. In my opinion they were doing a subpar job. It seemed to me that they were falling short of what I thought was what God was calling them to do.

My heart was full of negative thoughts like: she needs to focus more on [txyz] .. and not on abc … she needs to stop doing it this way, and do it this way .. the way that I see it. I don’t think she cares. I don’t think she makes these important things a priority.

In my heart I’m thinking that He wants her to be more efficient, and pay more attention to details.

So when Sunday rolled around and I saw her across the room, the Holy Spirit gave me a word for her. It was just 6 words .. “You are doing a great job.”

When I went to deliver the message, she just sighed and closed her eyes like a giant weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She had tears in her eyes and she said, “I just feel like I let people down.”

The Lord knew she needed to be lifted up.

Knowing her I know that she struggles with perfectionism. This could be some of why she stalls at making decisions. God knows this about her, and instead of pressuring her or pointing out her flaws, He love bombs her. This took the pressure off of her and freed her up to take more risks and to not be afraid to take chances. God is ok with us making mistakes.

So when you see the flaws and errors in people, big and small, just remember that love is a huge motivator. Love covers all of our sins.

God looks at us and He sees love.

That’s why I made this T-shirt and Hoodie!