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    Why Is Loving Others So Difficult?: Field Guide For Following Jesus, #3
    Why Is Loving Others So Difficult?: Field Guide For Following Jesus, #3
    Why Is Loving Others So Difficult?: Field Guide For Following Jesus, #3
    Ebook123 pages1 hour

    Why Is Loving Others So Difficult?: Field Guide For Following Jesus, #3

    By Charlie Miller

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    About this ebook

    Does loving others seem too difficult for you?
    Do you struggle to show love to those around you? Do you wonder if it's even possible to love some people?

    What if there were practical ways to love others better?
    There are! This book contains 50 actionable ideas - each one designed to help you cultivate a heart of love and compassion for the people in your life, from family and friends to coworkers and even enemies!

    You can love others deeply – God will help you!
    God wants you to experience the joy and transformation that comes from loving others as He loves them, each and every day - so don't put it off any longer!

    Welcome to The Field Guide For Following Jesus series!
    This set of 10 books will absolutely help you grow in your spiritual life and in your walk with God. Each volume gives you 50 practical ideas for growing in your faith and becoming more like Jesus. Cultivating a deep faith isn't as hard as you might think, but it doesn't just happen by accident. All it takes is a bit of determination and a few ideas of where to start. You're holding 50 good ones in your hand right now, so what do you say? Are you ready to take the journey?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHey Church Media
    Release dateMay 5, 2024
    ISBN9798227262127
    Why Is Loving Others So Difficult?: Field Guide For Following Jesus, #3

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      Book preview

      Why Is Loving Others So Difficult? - Charlie Miller

      INTRODUCTION

      For years, I have searched for a book, or series of books, that practically approaches spiritual growth in the average Christian’s daily life. In March 2021, a friend recommended Donald S. Whitney's Ten Questions To Diagnose Your Spiritual Health to me, and I was immediately struck by how directly it cut to the core issues of the Christian faith. I heartily recommend his book to anyone who wants to grow in their faith without getting bogged down by legalistic lists of dos and don’ts. Whitney asks that Christians reflect on the fruits of their faith without resorting to the quick hacks and perfect routines that come at us from all sides in our social media world. Jesus may have summarized the gospel with two commands, but we Christians don’t have an impressive track record of successfully implementing them. Seriously, if you’re coming to this book before Ten Questions To Diagnose Your Spiritual Health, go read that one first — you can come back to this one when you’re finished!

      The idea for this book series grew as I started leading my congregation through Whitney’s ten questions. Based on his insightful work, I developed a tool that would help our church members assess how they were doing with each foundational block of the Christian walk. The Personal Spiritual Assessment considers each of Whitney’s ten questions with ten personal reflections. Congregants took time to read, pray, and meditate thoughtfully on each statement before assigning a numeric score to themselves. They added the scores for each of the statements, which enabled them to identify areas of their faith objectively that presented opportunities for growth. These folks then decided on one or two specific areas of their faith to emphasize over the next several months.

      This assessment worked well, but it presented a new challenge: once someone understood which areas of their faith they could focus on for spiritual growth, what next? What work could they do to actually grow in that area? Whitney's book wonderfully poses and explains the ten questions, and the Personal Spiritual Assessment offers essential focus and direction for growth — all that remains is to actually take action! A Christian who wants to grow in their faith must begin doing specific, actionable things. A mind that understands spiritual growth and a heart that desires it are essential at the trailhead, but actions are necessary to bring that understanding and desire into the daily walk of real life. This book — and the entire series — is the answer to that need.

      In chapter one, you will find a brief description of why loving others matters for followers of Jesus. If this book tackles the how, the first chapter is the why. Again, I strongly recommend Whitney’s book for a longer discussion of this topic.

      Chapter two introduces the portion of the Personal Spiritual Assessment addressing the question, How am I at loving other people? This will give you an opportunity to assess for yourself whether a love for others is a strength of your walk or an area that presents an opportunity for further growth. Before diving into the action steps suggested in the rest of the book, you should take this assessment. By taking the assessment up front, you can start with an honest idea of how important loving others is in your life.

      I strongly recommend that you come back and redo the assessment after several months or even a few years, regardless of whether you find the strategies in this book helpful, to gauge your progress. If you'd rather take the full assessment all at once, you can access the complete Personal Spiritual Assessment here:

      https://heychurchmedia.com/personal-spiritual-assessment

      Chapters three through nine are the actual heart and purpose of this book. This is where you will find 50 practical ways to love others better. Some of these ideas may be familiar to you, while others might be completely new. Certain suggestions will strike a chord with you, while others might not resonate. This is by design! By including 50 practices, my hope is that you will find a few to incorporate in your daily rhythms. Some of these ideas may seem similar in action, but each has a distinct focus. Be bold, venture outside your comfort zone, and allow God to stretch you. Most importantly, find the ones that work for you.

      Finally, Chapter ten is a collection of resources that can help you cultivate a heart that loves other people the way God intends for you to love them. In it, you will find several books to reference as you walk down the path of personal spiritual growth. There is also a link to our website where you can find devotions, blogs, sermons, videos, and other helpful tools. There is no one thing that is right for everyone, and we are not looking for quick shortcuts to our spiritual growth. Quick faith is usually shallow faith. We want to pursue a faith that is deep, grounded, and well rooted. This is the faith that will stand when life is hard, when days are challenging, and when God doesn’t seem so near.

      Thank you for investing your time, energy, and money in this book. My prayer is that you find it useful in your journey to become more like Jesus. Additionally, I hope you will actively strengthen your faith every day, both in big and small ways. I welcome your feedback, and I would love to hear about your own faith journey — please get in touch via email at [email protected]. May the love of God the Father, the guiding of the Holy Spirit, and the peace of Jesus Christ be with you.

      ONE

      WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT LOVING OTHERS?

      This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

      - John 15:12

      When you read love one another, what comes to mind?

      A warm, fuzzy feeling inside?

      Being kind to those who are kind to you?

      Doing good deeds for friends and family?

      Tolerating difficult people with a smile?

      These are all common responses, so if your mind leans toward one of them, you're not alone.

      But what if loving others is the key to experiencing the depth of God’s love in your own life? What if it could be a source of joy and fulfillment, even as you face the challenges of life? For many followers of Christ, authentically loving other people has not only transformed their relationships with those around them, but also refashioned their own heart and soul. If we are not used to loving others in the way that Jesus demonstrated, these possibilities sound too good to be true. But as you begin to grow your love for others, you will find it is the secret to knowing God more intimately and living out His calling for your life.

      As I shared in the introduction, Donald S. Whitney's Ten Questions To Diagnose Your Spiritual Health is a powerful work which I highly recommend. In it, he expresses the supreme importance of love before asking, Are you more loving? That is a profoundly important question! I encourage you to read and reflect on Whitney's book to gain a deeper understanding of why loving others

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