Thought for the Month

Preferring One Another

When reading the early chapters of  Isaiah in the Message I was struck by the fact that God would consider bringing judgement on Israel not because that they turned their back on God but because they were carving each other up.

The second commandment is to love others as ourselves - to treat others as we would like them to treat you.

For me this is capsulated in the phrase: Prefer Each Other

We are learning 2 things

• We cannot afford to take offence at people
• Our response has to be to forgive and bless those who would offend us

We bless without expecting anything in return. Just because we ask someone for their forgiveness it does not necessarily mean that the person will respond in the way we want them to. Often it will seem that we have not achieved any success in making the relationship better. Sometimes it may even appear that we have in fact made the relationship worse. However it has been my experience that as we continue to bless even in the face of opposition that God turns the situation completely around in His way. His ways are not our ways and often the solutions He creates for our lives are not the solutions we would see. They are God Solutions.