Eyes Like Jesus

As a believer in Jesus, how do you think God sees you? What do you think His eyes see when He looks at you? He sees you as His incredible masterpiece in Christ. He sees you as chosen. Righteous. Worthy. His. And, oh, how He delights in you and all that you are! He looks beyond your faults and sees your sins covered and cleansed. He not only loves you beyond comprehension, but He likes you too! Now, how do you think He sees others? Well, He loves them just as much as He loves you. Like you, they are His treasured creations who bear His imageso deeply loved that He sent His only Son to offer them the opportunity to become children of God (Genesis 1:26-27; John 1:12). So how does this transform how we see others? The hard-to-love classmate? The annoying sibling? The kid at school who is just a little quirky? The bully? The worn-out parent or teacher? The hard-to-work-for boss? We all encounter people who are different from us, difficult to love, difficult to be around, and difficult to get along with. But what if we could see them as Jesus sees them? What if we could look beyond their faults with love? What if we could give grace to others because of the immeasurable grace we have received from Him? What if we had eyes of compassion for the ones who are hurting others, knowing that they themselves must be hurting? What if, instead of seeing their annoyances or quirks, we could embrace their God-given design, inviting them to experience the love of Jesus that we also have experienced? Have eyes to see others the way Jesus does. You may be the first glimpse, or even the only glimpse, of Jesus that they see. • Cara Campbell Who is someone in your life who is hard to love? Does knowing how much Jesus loves you change the way you see that person? As you think about how to love difficult people in your life, what questions do you have about what that would look like? Who can you talk to about these questions? We love each other because he [God] loved us first. 1 John 4:19 (NLT) Read Verses: Ephesians 1:3-10; 2:8-10; 3:16-19