Making Allowances
How easily do you accept the “faults” of other people?
Verse of the Day
‘Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.’
Today’s Devotional
This is the same verse we looked at yesterday. It’s one thing to say “be patient”, but it’s another thing all together to make allowance for other people’s faults. But the part that jumps off the page to me today is “because of your love”. I don’t make allowances for others because it’s easy, I (try to) do it because of how much God loves me even when I’m acting in an unlovely way.
I was on a four hour flight with my husband recently. A completely full flight. And there were two different families with small children, one set a couple rows in front of us, the other set several rows behind. It was probably the noisiest flight I have ever been on. Both of these sets of children were very noisy and upset for the duration of the flight. They cried and screamed and squawked for the entire flight.
I became pretty irritated. Couldn’t these parents control their children? I allowed these unruly kids to get under my skin and I got a little crabby.
When we were at baggage claim, and one of the families was still right next to us with children running amok, I said to my husband, “I wonder how God handles irritation.”
And this verse came to my mind.
I can only imagine how irritating we humans must be to God. And yet He responds with love and grace. When I look at Jesus, I see Him patiently enduring and redirecting the men who were with Him.
In Mark 9, we see an example of this. “’After they arrived at Capernaum and settled in a house, Jesus asked his disciples, “What were you discussing out on the road?” But they didn’t answer, because they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve disciples over to him, and said, “Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.”” (Mark 9:33-35)
Jesus would have had every right to stop the disciples in the middle of their argument and say, “Seriously guys? Do you not get it? Do you not see the servant nature of this life I have called you to? When will you ever learn?!?” But Jesus did not do that. He made allowances for their faults. He sat down and gathered them around him and explained what it means to have the heart of a servant. Then later He showed them again by washing their feet, the job of a lowly servant.
Oswald Chambers wrote about the Apostle Paul: “The chief motivation behind Paul’s service was not love for others but love for his Lord. If our devotion is to the cause of humanity, we will be quickly defeated and brokenhearted, since we will often be confronted with a great deal of ingratitude from other people. But if we are motivated by our love for God, no amount of ingratitude will be able to hinder us from serving one another.”
Being children of God calls us to make allowances for each other’s faults. The assumption here is that we all have faults and we can all be irritating to others. And yet we are called to swallow the irritation and respond with love and grace. We are called to love others because WE ARE SO LOVED by God. Patience, then, is an outward expression of our inward acceptance of God’s love.
This is no easy task. And we will not always get it right.
Patience calls us to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. God’s love calls us to be gentle and patient. Faith reminds us of our love, poured out from the Father into us, which we can then extend to others. So when we struggle with being patient with others, maybe we need to take the time to receive a fresh does of God’s love.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
How do you generally respond to the faults of others?
How do you respond to the example that Jesus has set for us?
Think of a specific person in your life that sparks irritation and write out what it would look like to make allowances for this person’s faults.
How does God handle your faults?
How do you handle your own faults?
How do patience and gentleness affect your humility?
When was the last time you asked God to remind you of His love for you? Are you willing to ask Him that today?