God loves people more than anything!  He cares about our relationships, and so many of my conversations with Him are about those I love.  Obviously, some are easier to love than others, but God is faithful to show us ways to love like He does.

John 13:³⁴ So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other

From the journal . . . . June 1995

My friend, I’ll call Jameka, has been on my mind all morning.  I beg You Lord, convict me where I sin and give me wisdom and discernment with my insights.  What would You have me do?  I believe Jameka has some mental and psychological problems.  She was evidently often sick as a child, and as an adult, being weak and helpless seems to be a part of her identity.  On the other hand, being a child of God is another part of who she is. I’ve always been amazed by her faith in Your provision.  She just trusts that You will provide whatever she needs, and I respect that!  However, I am also confounded by how she’s so willing to take anything that people offer, regardless of sacrifice to themselves.  I don’t see a lot of fruit, but she apparently loves You with all her heart.

She recently married and her husband seems to believe she hasn’t been treated fairly at church, but I know that the church has supported her spiritually, financially, and emotionally for years.  So now I am dubious about the complaints she has made concerning other places or people, and how they treated her.  Lord, I think she is under delusions.  She’s in her mid-forties and it has served her well to be as she is.  So Lord, what about me?  What do I do to respond to her in love?

And I Believe God Said:

Point to Me.  Love her by reminding her of Me.  You don’t need to preach, but speak words to edify.  Don’t speak false words of insincerity but words to edify and glorify My name.

1 Thes 5:11 ¹¹ So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.
Eph 4:29. Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.

Lord, it always comes down to loving You and loving others.

Matt 22:37-40 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

I see that I had more trouble loving Jameka when I found she had spoken critically of those who had given so much of themselves to help her.  Yet when I think of You and all You do for such a wretch as me while I often respond in complaints, who am I to judge?

Lam 3:39-40 Why should any living mortal, or any man, Offer complaint in view of his sins?
⁴⁰ Let us examine and probe our ways, And let us return to the Lord.   NASB

Luke 6:37 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven.