Through Different Eyes

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
While I know this verse as well as I know my own name, I've never taken the time to comtemplate the "love" that God has for the world...a love so different that He would sacrifice a life so precious to Him, that of His only Son. As a child of God, I am also called to have that same kind of love for "the world".

But what about 1 John 2:15? Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

It's all a matter of perspective-seeing things through the eyes of God-being able to filter out the evil and see through the filter of the love of God.

Yesterday during prayer time at church, I found God speaking to my heart to pray for protection for Mrs. Ray, the mom of a man in our church, who had been the victim of a robbery in her home twice in the last several months. She is a sweet, soft-spoken, gentle woman-much like her son. As another person and myself prayed for her and for her protection, I was suprised when I started praying for those that had actually committed the crime. Where did that come from? How could I pray for someone who broke into a gentle, kind woman's house?

As I listened to God speaking to my heart this morning through this scripture, He reminded me that the love He was speaking about in John 3:16 is the kind of love that prays for all-even those that break into a sweet, gentle and kind woman's house.

Dear Lord, please help me to continue to see others as You do. Open the eyes of my heart and use Your Holy Spirit to give me the same type of vision of love as You have for "the world". Amen