Love In Spite

“For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” Romans 5:7-9

Over the course of the last couple of days I have felt a special dispensation of grace and gratitude. If asked I couldn’t really tell you when or where it started. All I know is that I’ve enjoyed it and have tried to bask in it for as long as possible. Yesterday, while on my way to work, the Holy Spirit reminded me of Romans 5:8. I was reminded how I had done nothing worthy of God’s pardon but yet He sent Jesus to die for my sins. Once again I had a wave of gratitude flood my spirit. I was then inspired to make a Facebook post that read something to this extent, “He loved us in spite of our short comings so let’s return the favor to others today.”

I believe we could learn a lot by following and mimicking Jesus’ actions. When I consider Romans 5:7-9, I see more grace, mercy, and love extended our way via Jesus that we should then duplicate towards others. I see us not holding those guilty of doing wrong accountable for every single thing thus causing us to withhold our love from them. I can now understand why Jesus, only minutes away from death, asked the Father to forgive the soldiers that day. He was demonstrating love in spite of their short comings. He saw past their actions and decided to extend grace.

Today I’d like to encourage you to look past the short comings of others and be an extension of God’s grace, love, and mercy in their lives. I know it might be easier said than done but it’s possible. If you need help just remember the latter part of Romans 5:8, “while we (you) were still (a) sinners, Christ died for us (you).” God bless and go forth doing well today!

Adraine Scott
Adraine is the president of Edvance Services LLC. His entire professional career has been spent helping others find their unique ways of learning and being. He has been able to accomplish this by serving as a youth minister, speaker, counselor, college and career minister, secondary education teacher, and business owner.