“Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them … Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other … Live in harmony with each other … Do all you can to live in peace with everyone.” Romans 12:9-10,16,18
Lord Jesus, thank you for the look, smell, wonder, and beauty of the relationship culture described in the verses above. No pretense, just grace in the present tense. Kindness, encouragement, and delight abounding—enveloped in a soundtrack of mercy, honor, and affection on repeat play.
Is this the life of heaven? Yes! For it takes the riches of heaven to cultivate hearts, marriages, and friendships that look like this. We won’t do it perfectly till heaven, but you call us to live and love like this right now. We can choose kindness over crustiness, humility over haughtiness, encouragement over resentment, curiosity over criticism, blessing over cursing—reminding each other of the Gospel WAY more than we remind each other of our failures.
It’s loving as you love us, Jesus. At the end of this very brief life none of us will say, “I’m SO glad I nursed those grudges and fertilized my roots of bitterness. I didn’t win the lottery, but I was awesome at taking things way too personally, assuming the worst of everyone, blaming and shaming, and pouting—I was especially good at pouting.”
Jesus, when you return and we behold the staggering fullness of your beauty, grace, and goodness—none of us are going to congratulate ourselves for being small-hearted, grace-misers. Relationships are complex, but your grace IS sufficient. It’s hard down here, but even as our feet remain planted on the earth, we are already seated in the heavenlies in you (Eph.2:6). Jesus, increasingly free us to live and love to your glory. So Very Amen.
