God Running is a place for anyone who wants to (or even anyone who wants to want to) love Jesus more deeply, follow Jesus more closely, and love people the way Jesus wants us to.
I recently encountered 1 Corinthians 13 in my through the Bible reading plan. It’s one of my all time favorite chapters in the Bible. Here are two verses from that chapter:
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
1 Corinthians 13:4-6
It reminded me of a friend who once wrote out verses 4-6 of 1 Corinthians 13 and put them on his refrigerator, but, he substituted his kids’ names in place of the word love. So instead of “Love is patient . . .” it said, “David is patient, David is kind, David is a person who doesn’t envy,” etc. So as I thought about what my friend did, I began to wonder, what if I started every day praying this prayer, and what if I ended every day asking myself these questions?
Prayer:
Father,
Make me patient today.
Make me kind today.
Make me a person who doesn’t envy today.
Make me a person who doesn’t boast today.
Make me a person who isn’t arrogant today.
Make me a person who isn’t rude today.
Make me a person who doesn’t insist on my own way today.
Make me a person who isn’t irritable or resentful today.
Make me a person who doesn’t rejoice at wrongdoing today.
Make me a person who rejoices with the truth today.
Questions:
And at the end of every day, what if I asked myself these questions?
Was I patient today?
Was I kind today?
Was I a person who didn’t envy today?
Was I a person who didn’t boast today?
Was I a person who wasn’t arrogant today?
Was I a person who wasn’t rude today?
Was I a person who didn’t insist on my own way today?
Was I a person who wasn’t irritable or resentful today?
Was I a person who didn’t rejoice at wrongdoing today?
Was I a person who rejoiced with the truth today?
If I started and ended my day this way, maybe it would change who I am.
Maybe it would help me to love the people around me the way Jesus did.
So I’m going to print out this blog post and leave it on the nightstand next to my bed.
Stay tuned to see if this helps or not — because — after a week I’m going to ask Kathy if she sees any changes.
Newly released book by Kurt Bennett, now available on Amazon!
Love Like Jesus: How Jesus Loved People (and how you can love like Jesus)
Love Like Jesus begins with the story of how after a life of regular church attendance and Bible study, Bennett was challenged by a pastor to study Jesus. That led to an obsessive seven year deep dive. After pouring over Jesus’ every interaction with another human being, he realized he was doing a much better job of studying Jesus’ words than he was following Jesus’ words and example. The honest and fearless revelations of Bennett’s own moral failures affirm he wrote this book for himself as much as for others.
Love Like Jesus examines a variety of stories, examples, and research, including:
- Specific examples of how Jesus communicated God’s love to others.
- How Jesus demonstrated all five of Gary Chapman’s love languages (and how you can too).
- The story of how Billy Graham extended Christ’s extraordinary love and grace toward a man who misrepresented Jesus to millions.
- How to respond to critics the way Jesus did.
- How to love unlovable people the way Jesus did.
- How to survive a life of loving like Jesus (or how not to become a Christian doormat).
- How Jesus didn’t love everyone the same (and why you shouldn’t either).
- How Jesus guarded his heart by taking care of himself–he even napped–and why you should do the same.
- How Jesus loved his betrayer Judas, even to the very end.
With genuine unfiltered honesty, Love Like Jesus, shows you how to live a life according to God’s definition of success: A life of loving God well, and loving the people around you well too.
A life of loving like Jesus.
