When You Don’t Feel Like Loving Your Enemies, Here’s Help
How do we live out our Christian values in a world that’s become increasingly cold to God’s Word? It can be tough. But as believers, Rev. Pablo Diaz says, we must recall the mercy and grace God has extended to us.
“I try to remember that God’s love for me is constant and consistent, never changing,” says Diaz, vice president of ministries for Guideposts’ outreach division. “I try to think about how God can love me with all my mistakes and sins and fault and errors and how He never takes his eyes off of me. That pushes me to be mindful of my call to love.”
Guideposts recently republished a booklet titled Seven Values to Live By, which Diaz discussed on a recent edition of “Charisma Connection” on the Charisma Podcast Network. Written by Guideposts founder Norman Vincent Peale, the booklet highlights key values for successful, faithful living: integrity, courage, enthusiasm, happiness, faith, hope and love.
And love, Diaz says, is the most important of the seven.
“I’m often reminded of the apostle Paul’s Scripture in Corinthians where he said there’s faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love,” Diaz says. “Jesus taught us to love. He taught us to love others, ourselves and God. He taught us to love one another—our neighbors and our enemies.
“Once we get the power of love in us and understand how it changes us, how it changes others, then it influences all of the other values we have. We are to concentrate on it and try to live it out.”
