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Real Hope: Loving Our NeighboursSample

Real Hope: Loving Our Neighbours

DAY 6 OF 7

Loving Our Neighbours

I find Mark 12:30–31 so challenging. Here, we are handed on a silver platter, the greatest of all the commandments. This is the focal point of our faith. If we miss everything else, here’s two statements that summarize it all. Love God with everything you have. Love your neighbour as you love yourself.

It’s the idea of loving others in the way that we love ourselves that I find most confronting. We’ve probably all heard various teachings on this. Perhaps it’s a challenge to make sure we take care of ourselves, because we can only take care of others as much as we can take care of ourselves. Perhaps it’s the challenge to consider others’ needs, not just our own, in any given circumstance.

I was challenged last year to articulate how I love myself. In the end, I came up with the idea that I want to listen to myself kindly, believe myself, and act accordingly. This, then, was challenged as an application to others. To listen kindly, to believe, and to act accordingly.

It was an interesting exercise that later extended to add the consideration that when I do something that is good for me, I don’t owe myself anything. There is never an IOU between me and me. Perhaps this is part of how we love others as we love ourselves - in a way that is without debt to them.

How would you articulate how you love yourself? How does that apply to how you love others?

Written by SUSIE HOLT

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Day 5Day 7

About this Plan

Real Hope: Loving Our Neighbours

We know the Bible passage 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 that states that love is patient, kind, not easily angered and so on. We hear it applied to wedding vows but do we always remember that God expects us to love EVERYONE this way? This can be a challenge, as you read these devotions let God show you how you can spread some love to people around you this week.

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