monday

Care About Your Co-workers

One of the most important keys to receiving God's favor on your work is this: you must care about the people you work with. Even when they are irritable, even when they don't like you, even when they make fun of you, even when they put you down for being a Christian, you must still be a friend to them.

Why is this so important for success? Because the number one lesson in life, the number one reason God put you on this earth, is to learn how to love. God is love and he wants you to be like him.

It's easy to love people you like, the people you find easy to get along with. So if God's going to teach you real love, realize that he's going to put you around unlovely people.

"Everything you do must be done with love" - This means at the office, in the car, on a sales trip, whatever. The good news is this really is not hard. It's easy to underestimate the power of a kind word, a friendly smile, a pat on the back, a genuine compliment, a word of encouragement, and a listening ear.

I have seen so many lives changed when somebody takes time to pay attention to them. There is not a person on this planet who isn't starving for attention. But a caring person is hard to find.

The Apostle Paul said this, "I have no one else like Timothy, who genuinely cares about your welfare." (Philippians 2:20 NLT) Does that sound like your workplace? Everyone looking out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ? Those who really care are really aware.

Oh man.
This devotional brought up a lot of memories as I reminisced about being a part of the PT last year, and this year.
I think we have gotten a lot closer than we have last year. I grew to care for everyone on the PT, and I hope you all feel the same c:

As for being a Christian person off church grounds, I don't find forgiving and forgetting as easy-breezy I should.
In a way, this devotional is saying that God'll put us to the test by not putting us just around the people we like, but also some challenges who are really hard to like. However, if we learn to love everyone despite what they may have done and who they are, God'll be proud. God did call us to be like Christ, and made us all in his likeness. Since God is love, it only makes sense that we should love like he did. He loved and loves every single person, despite the fact that some of them do not know Him. Additionally, I really learned over time that we do underestimate the power we have on others; a simple compliment, encouragement, smile, etc. really brightens up things. That being said, it doesn't mean that we have to be the source of brimming happiness forcefully.

God DID say "‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:31).

We probably know that it is easy to love our friends and family. But that doesn't make us a Christian if we just love who we are close with. Anyone can do that, even people like Hitler and Kim Jong Un. God wants us to love not just the people we are close with, but people whom we aren't close with and even despise. He wants us to be like him, who is love himself. So whenever we get teased or annoyed, we shouldn't be planning some kind of revenge. We should forgive them and continue to love them. Jesus said that one of the greatest commandment was to love our neighbours. So, instead of being like everyone else and hating our enemies, we should open up to them and love them like how we love our friends and families. Then, we can be like God, who loves everyone with his heart.

i dont have a problem with being nice to people who are friendly but its much harder for me to be nice to people who feel like theyre better than me. it just feels like im wasting my time and dignity pandering to some person who feels superior. somehow it seems like theyre winning or something. like when i say hi and smile at a girl and she gives me the girl-checkout (eyes look from head to feet in disdain) and ignores me. i guess i need to work on being more humble, even to people who arent nice. <-- of course that is people from school, as my other "colleagues" (pt) are all my favorite people and i have no problems with loving them at all. honestly i started this devo and then i started listening to music and i kinda forgot what the whole devo message said... more on loving those who dont deserve it though: Jesus loved us even though we are the ultimate definition of unworthy. so, no matter how awful a person is, we have no right to not love them because God loves us in all our inequity.

Learning to love everyone and not just those who are easy to love (like friends and family) is something that God wants to teach us. I can really relate to and understand the amazing effect of showing love onto those around you. When I switched schools to a small one in the Chicago suburbs, everyone already knew each other and I felt reallt out-of-place. This feeling was COMPLETELY washed away when one friendly person introduced himself to me and showed me around the school. This act of kindness and love was shown to someone he did not know, but because he did this I almost immediately felt welcomed and comfortable in the school. It is truly amazing what love can do. One part of the devo stuck out to me, "God is love and he wants you to be like him". God is the ultimate form of love, and showing love to others is one way we can become more and more like Him.

I guess this one sort of just boils down to *strive for agape* thing. As impossible as it is, one condition that seems possible to fulfill is the whole 'love everybody' idea. From a practical point of perspective, liking certain people over others is actually 'irrational'. I mean, as far as it goes, we all come with each of our own respective "flaws" and one person doesn't have more "flaws" than another. That being said, there's really no reason why we should like one person more than another with the exception of the idea that we've had more opportunities to bond with one specific person.

So then, in conclusion, we should be able to get friendly with practically anybody given that we spend a little bit of time with them. It's just completely irrational that we would avoid people from a bad first impression, given the fact that God hasn't put one of us above the other. Any sort of pyramid scheme we see within human society is man made, and through God's perspective, we're seen as equals. For that reason, we should try to treat each other nicely, rather than picking a few to treat nicely

and just picking a few exceptions to treat like shit.

Whatever bits and pieces of God's values we can understand, we should apply it to our lives, and in this case, we should treat everybody with the respect God would give them.

I know that we have grown a lot closer in PT and i know that we will continue to grow exponentially. HOwever, i feel that something we lack is words of encouragement and genuine care for others. I know that we all care for each other we all have our own ways to show our affection. Whether it be making fun of someone, helping someone, sitting on someone, and the list goes on and on. We can show love and affection in so many different ways but most of the ways are indirect ways to show affection. We should show more affection and love directly, whether it be saying great job man! or like keep it up, because a single compliment can go a loooong way. Everyone should work on this including myself because lol we dont compliment each other usually and i think this is so because we already think were really good and we are. But even if we are AMAZING we should still continue to encourage others.

God's love is unconditional, and ours should be as well.
If I was to break that down into a more understandable basis, I can think of three categories that love should fulfill: Our love should reach everyone, be genuine, and remain whatever the predicament.

The first sounds the most unpractical, but is probably the easiest one of the three in my opinion. While we can get shy and feel awkward, it is really important to reach out and talk to people who we might not normally talk to. Whether it is in school or church, there are always people who we don't know, and how can we love someone if we don't know that they exist? A simple introduction, getting to know them a little better, or inviting them to something are all pretty easy ways to get started as long we can get past the initial shyness barrier.

The second builds on the first. We can say hi to someone and ask them about their week, but people can feel whether we really care about them or not. Although it may be difficult, I think that it is important to actually remember the little details about what they say. This can reduce the amount of repeated questions which can make the person feel less cared about, and the little things can become a topic of conversation and will definitely make the person feel special if you are able to remember them.

The third is the one that is either really difficult or really easy depending on the person. For our friends and people that we spend a lot of time with, we usually are able to love them despite the circumstances, or how irritable or annoying, etc they might be. However, for those that we do not know very well, this last category may the hardest to sustain. I think that the best way to do this is by building realationships (pun intended) with those people.

So yeah that was pretty much all application, but I think that we all know that our end goal is to be like Christ. This means a lot of things, but one of them is to love as God loves; unconditionally, fully, and unendingly.

Dis gonna be a long week...

1 Thessalonians 4
7-8: For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
Early on within the chapter, Paul tells the Thessalonian church that it's only through God's will that you should be sanctified. Lately, I haven't been experiencing sin the same way I have been before. Whenever I fall into sin, it doesn't seem enjoyable yet worthwhile. But it was the Holy Spirit that convicted me constantly, day and night, until I was right with God and with the certain person that I had sinned against. I loved pastor Sam's analogy on Sunday, where being holy is FULLY being set apart. You can't make a deal with God and compare with others to justify your actions when it's clearly wrong. And when we do try to justify our actions, we're not seeing God as we should. We're not fearing God enough, not witnessing His strength and capabilities.

1 Thessalonians 5
16-19: Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit's fire;
23: May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our desire for God should never burn out if we want a committed relationship with Him. He is a jealous God, wanting the most of what He could receive from us. If you really think about it, its a privilege in which its greatness could not be fathomed. He wants to spend time with us, on a personal level - every single one of us. No matter how bad we've been living our lives, or how well we've been walking with God, He just wants time with us. He wouldn't have it any other way. I like the last part, as Paul mentions the Spirit's fire. The Holy Spirit dwells in us and that flame should never be extinguished because there's nothing that could possibly measure up to God. Sin isn't worthwhile, there's something greater that's waiting for us and it'll never leave us. Verse 23 mentions the process of sanctification, becoming more and more like Christ - to become holy. As the greatest commandment is to love God with all our hearts, soul, mind, and strength, our bodies will be cleaned through the blood of Christ.

I don't think real love is shown in it's true form through the best of times, but rather is brought out in it's purest from through tribulations. We don't see real love when everything in our lives is going perfectly, we see it through suffering and pain, when real love is brought out in it's rawest form. I think this can be taken into the context of how Jesus showed us the truest Love on the cross. It was demonstrated to us, not by trivial, simple acts, but Jesus showed it to us through the excruciating pain, shame, and blame he had to endure to show how much God loved us. Through pain and suffering the world learnt what True Love is.
We live in a society where people just tend to have an instinctual behaviour to look after themselves before others. A majority may not consider the needs of others above their own or maybe not even in equality to their own. I know I'm most definitely guilty of that. When I do things, I tend to look after myself before others. I see this behaviour within me through the most simplest things, such as not holding the door for someone. But I also see it through putting my pride down to life others up. I think pride is one of the most prominent thing that dictates how we treat others. Not many are willing to lay down their pride for the sake of others. I'm still trying to work on that. I'm starting to get an idea that when people hurt me, no matter how much pain they caused me, I have to stop putting all my focus into caring for my emotions but rather laying down my pride to forgive them. My pride is a minor thing to give up to help lift others up and reach their fullest potential.
I also think that I have to work harder to be more caring towards others. I know this can only be achieved when I genuinely work towards this. I sometimes do things for the sake of it, not with my full heart because I'm just too exhausted or worn-out to care for the needs of others. But I know now that I need to do it with my heart in the right place, where God wants it to be.
God calls us to care for others, no matter how cruel they may be to us. It's obviously more difficult to put into action, but that doesn't mean it's impossible. I think it's time for me to step back and focus more upon the needs of my fellow brothers and sisters.
God showed us pure, true, and unconditional love, and it's definitely imperative to amplify this love to everyone we possibly can.

19 We love because he first loved us.
1 John 4:19

(This isn't late at all ...)

Sometimes, it really is hard to love. There have been so many times in my not-so-very-long life where I have found myself stuck with people I really hated. From fellow classmates to stupid teachers, I've met many people in my life whom I simply never wanted to see again. Ever. Many times I would think "Why" and ask God why he would allow me to cross paths with such ignorant, self-righteous people - the only answer I got was from Him through my parents, pretty much telling me to "Suck it up".

Just like with through life experiences we grow and learn, in a sense I guess as we meet different kinds of people, we also grow. Many times we hear that love is reserved for someone special to you, friends and family but here, God is telling us to be like Him and love everyone. Love our family, friends, neighbours, AND that girl who just never stops talking about you behind your back.

Even though we will never be as perfect as God, we should strive towards it - not striving to be God in the sense where we view ourselves equal to him, but to learn to love like he does. Love the world as a whole.

Through experiences I know that forgiving, forgetting and loving is possible - but I also know that it isn't easy. It took me an entire year to forgive someone and learn to become friends, be nice and share love but there are yet still so many people who I don't get along with and there are bound to be more as I go further in life.

My dad often tells me I don't have to like everyone and always question when I attempt to mend a relationship I didn't break but I guess God was telling me it was the right thing to do. And the way I see it, if you had the choice to LOVE instead of HATE, why wouldn't you?

The bottom line is, God's love is never-ending, unconditional and we should strive to be capable of such love. We should really just strive to be like him, since we were made in the image of God anyway.