The Irritating Individual
Romans 5:6 Christ died for us when we were unable to help ourselves. We were living against God, but at just the right time Christ died for us.
Can I ask you to picture the face of the one person on this planet who irritates you the most? You feel something in your heart – anger, resentment, fear … whatever the emotion. Just thinking about this individual tends to unsettle you, to rob you of your peace and your joy.
So, when you woke up this morning, what plan did you hatch to bless that particular person?
None?! I thought that could be the case. Blessing the most difficult person in your life, blessing the person who irritates you, who treads on your emotions, who makes you angry or even afraid, blessing that person is rarely the first thing that springs to mind.
In fact, what we tend to do, is either to dish out or withhold blessing, based on how they make us feel; on how they look or how they behave; whether they please us or not – hey … even what they smell like sometimes. So, what we’re really saying through the way we dish out or withhold our blessing, is that what’s most important is … me. How I feel. How that person impacts my emotions.
Christ died for us when we were unable to help ourselves. We were living against God, but at just the right time Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6)
In other words, when we, you and I, were living our lives against God, in fact, even before then, God sent Jesus to die for us. In His love for us, He didn’t sit back and wait for us to clean up our respective acts. In His love for us, He didn’t think first about how we were hurting Him. His first thought, in sending Jesus to die for us, was us. He was thinking of you, He was thinking of me. He realised that unless He stepped up and poured out His love on us, we were doomed.
That’s what love does. It steps forward and blesses those who don’t deserve it. And that, that’s called grace.
So, let’s go back to that one person in your life who more than any other, simply doesn’t deserve it? And let me ask you again: what’s your plan to bless that person, today? Hmm?
We were living against God, but just at the right time, Christ died for us!
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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