October 18
The God in Me Loves the God in My Fellowman
Let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
I John 4:7
THE word “love” when used to describe the nature of God can be easily understood by everyone, for we are always responsive to love. Rich or poor, religious or nonreligious, we know the word and feel an expansion within us when it is used. Believing that God acts through humanity, then love must act through humanity. It is easy to love the people who agree with us, but Jesus had the knack of loving the people who didn’t agree with him. We must make a sincere attempt to love those who oppose us, who disagree with us. If we realize that within them is the love of God, even as it is within ourselves, and we salute it and thus bring it forth, we shall be worthy if the teachings of the Man of Galilee. We may not love the outer actions of our fellowman, but we can love the fact that God dwells in him.
I BELIEVE that divine love indwells all the people whom I meet this day. I salute that love within them and expect good in some form from each one. No one dislikes me, and I dislike no one. I seek until I find some good in everyone. I am loving, kind and courteous to all. I show through the words of my mouth and the unseen thoughts of my mind that love is in my heart and joy is in my soul. To all who would irritate me I say, “The love of God in me loves the love of God in you.” The world is alive with divine love and I abide in it as a loving and gracious expression of Spirit. I give beauty and peace to my world and, therefore, I can only receive beauty and peace from my world. I give thanks that God loves by means of me.
Taken from “365 Days of Richer Living” by Ernest Holmes and Raymond Charles Barker