Happy December Overcomers!!!! I was reading Jeremiah 8:18-22 and 9:1-3 and learned something...
The prophet Jeremiah spoke of weeping for his countrymen day and night because of God's judgement, which had already fallen upon them, and which still awaited them. Though they had rejected and persecuted the prophets and was not listening to Jeremiah, he was brokenhearted for them. His response was an expression of God's redeeming love in his own life.
My pastor told me of a man who had been the superintendent of a city rescue mission for 40 years was asked why he had spent his life working with dirty, unkempt, profane, drunken derelicts. He said, "All I'm doing is giving back to others a little of the love God has shown me." As a young man, he himself had been a drunkard who went into a mission for a bowl of chili. There he heard the preacher say that Christ could save sinners, and he stumbled forward to accept the Lord Jesus as his Savior. Though his brain was addled with drink, he felt a weight lifted from his shoulders, and that day he became a changed person. A little later, seeking God's will for his life, he felt the Lord calling him back to the gutter and reach the people still wallowing there. The power of redeeming love enabled him to carry on his depressing task for 40 years.
Christian friend, if you are only nice to nice people, if you love only those who are lovely, and if you treat the hateful the way they treat you, God's redeeming love is not flowing out from your life. If you can, I encourage you to reflect upon His goodness and grace. Then ask God to make His love a moving power in your life.
Remember: Love in return for love is natural; love in return for hate is supernatural.
This has been an Overcomer's moment.......Love you guys!!
HLK
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