Loving Jesus

A devotion from one of my mentors, Aletha Hinthorn:

"A friend said that after reading in John 17:26 of Jesus' desire for us to love Him, she prayed for three years that she might love Jesus more.

One day the Holy Spirit said, "If you love Jesus, you love every member of His body."

Could it be that if there is someone we do not love we are saying to Jesus, "I do not love you enough to love that person"? We love Jesus no more than we love the member of His body we care for the least.

God uses expressive terms to describe the kind of love we are to have for one another. He tells us to "be devoted to one another," to "have sincere love, and to "love one another deeply, from the heart" (Romans 12:10; 1 Peter 1:22).

God loves the inconsiderate co-worker, the salesman at the door, the noisy people in the next apartment, the disappointing teacher, the rude clerk at the store, and the pokey driver ahead of us. God loves, not tolerates, all of us at all times. If we find someone is difficult to love, we can invite the Holy Spirit to pour His love into our heart.
When His Spirit fills our hearts, His Spirit becomes ours. Then we, too, are "gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love" (Psalm 145:8)."