Sunday, October 27, 2013

By: Gwen Hitt

Everyone Needs a Friend

Romans 15:7 Honor God by accepting each other as Christ has accepted you.

When I opened my Facebook app a few days ago, a post appeared that really forced me to reflect on how I treat others OUTSIDE of my circle of family and friends. The person who wrote the post was extremely distraught because individuals were not responding to her friend requests. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Facebook, friend requests are requests that are sent to individuals asking for permission to gain access to their Facebook page in order to open up a line of communication. I am quite certain that this person must have dealt with other forms of rejection in the past to cause such a reaction.

Since I do not spend much time on Facebook, I have been guilty of not accepting friend requests. If I am unfamiliar with the person making the request, I normally ignore the request. I wonder if my failure to accept a Facebook friend request ever resulted in hurt feelings? MORE importantly, I wonder if I have ever ignored attempts by individuals to befriend me in other (non-virtual) areas of my life?

Today's scripture provides an important reminder for us. We are told to honor God by accepting others as Christ accepted us. This is not a suggestion - it is what we are called to do. Ephesians 5:1-2 instructs us to "Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are His dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ."

This mandate from God is really not hard to do. It could be as simple as a smile directed towards someone who is hurting. It could be holding the door open for the person with their arms full. It could be making small talk with the person standing in line with you, or it could be bringing a hot meal to a neighbor who is sick.

My challenge to you is to make a daily attempt to reach out to someone who appears to be in need of a touch from Jesus. Always know that during His time on Earth, Jesus purposefully sought out and extended His mercy and healing to those that others would have shunned. Jesus recognized that these individuals were precious in His Father's sight. If we are to be imitators of Him, we must do the same!

Dear Lord, Open my eyes to the needs of others. Help me to see their pain, their loneliness, their despair....to fully imitate Your display of love for the broken-hearted.

I thank You, my Jesus, for dying for me. I believe that You are Lord and that God raised You from the grave so that I can have eternal life.