Having hope in a God you can’t see is hard. It’s hard to believe in an all-loving God when there is so much wrong in the world. When everywhere you look you see pain and suffering. It’s a struggle to believe, to have faith. To believe that God could create a world such as the one we live in today. It’s hard to stand tall when everyone around you is slowly wearing you down, inch by inch.
Sometimes I get so wrapped up in being a 'Christian'. I go to church, I sing all the songs. I do all the Jesus stuff but I forget to act like him. As soon as I leave the church building I go back to my normal ways. I find myself getting upset over stupid stuff. Fighting with my parents. Getting mad at slow drivers in front of me because I just want to get where I'm going. I find myself playing Christian more than actually acting like Christ.
It’s hard to act like Jesus would. To love at all times even when I don’t want to. To be patient and understand that my waitress may have had a crappy day. To not get angry in a movie theater when I’m trying to watch a movie and there is a fussy kid behind me that won’t be quiet long enough for me to enjoy the show. It’s honestly one of the hardest things to do.
My Preacher preached a sermon one time about acting as Jesus does, and something about the way he preached it really stuck with me. He told us anytime we were questioning whether the way we were acting was Jesus like or not, we could put our name in the “Love Chapter”. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Are you patient, kind? Are you not envious of others? Are you boastful? Are you prideful? Do you dishonor others? Are you self-seeking? Are you easily angered? Do you hold grudges? Do you delight in evil? Do you always protect, always trust, always hope and always persevere? Next time you are struggling to act like Jesus would, put your name 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7. It’s a struggle to represent a God that never fails. But knowing He loves me no matter how many times I mess up, how much better can it get than that?!
