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All You Need is Love... and Faith, and Perseverance

1.) Don't let someone's unhappiness turn into your own unhappiness. 
In other words, don't let their darkness overpower your light.  When someone is unhappy, they have a tendency to let it almost overflow and pour out onto the next person.  Honestly, we've all done it.  When that happens, all you have to do is be that light that the person needs.  Shine that bright light and let it overcome! 

"The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it." John 1:5 [NIV]


2.) Don't let someone make you feel bad about something you shouldn't feel bad about. 
Honestly, just that one smug remark someone says to you that seems to have come out of nowhere- Fam, don't let that get to you!  Insecure people will just say things just to put you down.  Again, I'm sure we've all been there.  Try to have compassion for those who put you down as God is constantly expressing His compassion and mercy on us.  After all, we're all human.

In fact, I believe that Jesus is a prime example of this.  He was following the law of the land while performing miracles for the greater good!  However, the Pharisees of this time went above and beyond to talk down on the beautiful acts He was doing.  Although Jesus was doing nothing wrong according to the law and for humanity at the time, people still went out of their way to try and make him discount what He was doing.  When in actuality, Jesus was following the law while doing amazing things as well.  Jesus never felt bad even though the Pharisees talked down on Him.  He knew what He was doing and He knew it was beneficial and necessary for the people.  

"Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.  for the Lord is a God of justice.  Blessed are all who wait to him." Isaiah 30:18 [NIV]


3.) Don't compare your situations to the people around you.
This one is huge and one I have to constantly remind myself of.  The enemy uses jealously to taunt us.  The people around us may appear to have the "idealistic" lifestyle, but come on.  We're wiser than that to jump to such a ridiculous conclusion.  There is  no such thing as an easy life, we all have our own battles to overcome.  Next time you find yourself envying your friend because of your hardship, remember that is a lie the enemy whispers in our ears when we are vulnerable and weak in our battle.  Keep trusting God and clothing yourself in His grace so we can stand steadfast in our faith! 

"For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge, and to knowledge, self control; and to self control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love." 2 Peter 1:5-7 [NIV]

4.) Love unconditionally.  
This is probably the most important thing to take account in out of the four.  This isn't easy sometimes, but in my personal experience, I find this to be the most spiritually rewarding and the most healing, mentally.  When you get hurt from another person, particularly someone who you love so much, it's easy to believe that you won't recover from that.  But Jesus overcame death by loving unconditionally so we can overcome the pain by loving unconditionally. 















As Christians, we are called to love God and love people.  Sounds easy enough, right?  Well, confession time, I used to find it super difficult sometimes to love on people who appear to be downright awful people.  Greedy, selfish, prideful, narrow minded...  whoah at first I thought I was describing myself before I knew Jesus, hah!
Just kidding.  But that is kind of my point.  We were all like that in one way or another, so why do we find it so hard to love on the person who puts us through hardships and that bring us down?  Honestly, it's easier than we think.  After understanding the definition of love in a biblical sense, it automatically puts everything in a much clearer perspective.  Yeah, Jesus is super awesome like that.  Making our lives easier one step of faith at a time!

"Because your love is better than my life, my lips will glorify you." Psalm 63:3 


  

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