Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen
1 John 4:20
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves…….Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
Romans 12:9-10, 14
We’re going to encounter some people in life who are just hard to love. Maybe they are constantly complaining about life. Maybe they live in a state of anger all the time. Perhaps they just hate life. Perhaps they have hurt you in some way and loving them just seems impossible.
1 John 3:15 tells us that
Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.
Jesus calls us to love everyone! Including our enemies! Including those who persecute us! Including those who are unlovable!
I’m going to be honest here. I struggle with loving a particular person in my life. This person has hurt me and has hurt others way too many times to count. Loving this person just seems impossible! They MAKE it impossible! But the longer I continue to harbor ill feeling towards them, the longer I am hurting myself. The longer I continue in my “inability” to love this person, the longer I’m straying away from God.
So this is something I am struggling to work on but if I just give this struggle to God, I can start to love this person. Because with God, ALL things are possible!
1 John 4:8 reminds us “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
God is love!
God loves us! And can’t we be unlovable from time to time? Yet God loves us despite that! I know that *I* can be unlovable at times. Yet God still loves me. His love is merciful! It’s faithful! It’s unconditional!
But you, Lord are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.
Psalm 86:15
With God’s help, we can love those who seem incapable of being loved.
Is there someone in your life who makes it difficult to love them?
Give it to God. God is love. God loves you.
All You Need is Jesus 
Thank you for publishing this Leigh – it is such a good reminder for me. I have often had to tell my two children that while you don’t have to be best friends with the person who is causing you hardship, you still have to have love for them like God would. You have to hope that they will someday be different. Of course, it is always much easier to say this as a parent to a child, but having to hear it as a child of God from the Ultimate Father – not so easy. There are a couple of people in my life that I really don’t like or trust, but I have to love. Thank you so much for sharing this. I don’t think that it was a coincidence – God always has an incredible way of teaching us at the most needed time.
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God works in mysterious ways! He is so good!
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Great post, Leigh!
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Great points!
I also wrote about this subject: https://plantedbylivingwater.wordpress.com/2018/04/27/steps-toward-love/
That which is impossible with mankind is possible with God! Praise the Lord that He gives us of His Spirit to help us love difficult people!
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What a loving post, Leigh!
I have nominated you for the Liebster Award. God loves you!
https://gaillovesgod.blog/2018/06/17/2-liebster-awards-for-my-birthday-6-13-18/
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So true, Leigh!!! Pain can constantly inflict especially when we hold onto it, and man is it hard to let go! I’m so glad you opened up about this 🙂
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