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Give Chances

    Many times when we do not like someone upon our first impressions of them, we tend to write them off completely. Or else one bad experience taints our entire view of a person. Unfortunately, human nature is to pull back from things that we do not feel will be pleasant to us. We harden our hearts to people that we feel will cause us pain or inconvenience. Yet this is totally unbiblical.

    Christianity should be about love and acceptance, but the world's view of it is hatred and judgement. Why do we dismiss the people who need Jesus the most to protect our own skin? We need to start changing our mentality as the body of Christ. We should be looking at people with Jesus' eyes of compassion and reaching out with His hands of love. When will we realize that people act the way they do in response to what they are feeling deep down. Were we not all the same while we were yet sinners? Before Jesus redeemed us and made us whole, we were the same way.

    Stop dismissing those around you for how they appear presently and start risking your comfort to reach them. Show others Jesus' love even when it is not recognized or appreciated. Even when you are rejected and ignored. That is the love we are called to live by. Is it more worth it to protect your feelings and comforts than to bring Jesus to someone who genuinely needs Him? I choose the latter and I choose to adjust my behavior accordingly. Give others a chance to know the redeeming love of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. It is the best chance you could ever give someone.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. (ESV)
John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (ESV)
Luke 10:27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (ESV)

Ephesians 4:32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (ESV)

Mark 6:34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. (ESV)

Colossians 3:12-13 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. (ESV)

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (ESV)

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