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b'Years back, I shared a house with a friend. This friend had a niece who\\nalso lived with us. For some reason, this girl harbored a dislike for me.\\nWhenever something went wrong in the house, she was quick to point out that\\nI was the one responsible when, in fact, I was innocent. This behavior of\\nhers irritated me a lot, and I in turn developed a dislike for her. But\\nthis state of affairs didn\\u2019t leave me with peace in my heart, so I decided\\nI was going to approach the situation differently. I decided to do what the\\nBible says: to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44). That meant loving this girl\\nwith the love of God. God loved us when we were still sinners and hostile\\nto Him. We were God\\u2019s enemies because of sinning against Him, but God\\ndemonstrated His love for us when He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for us.\\nThen Jesus rose from the dead, making the way for us to be reconciled to\\nGod. Because God loved us first, His love is available for us to respond\\nto. When we put our trust in Jesus as our Savior and Lord, we accept His\\noffer of forgiveness for our sins. As Christians, we are no longer God\\u2019s\\nenemies; we are His friends. And we\\u2019re empowered by the Holy Spirit to love\\nothers like God loves us. We can walk in love, even toward people who treat\\nus unfairly. When we love with the love of God, we will endeavor to treat\\npeople kindly in spite of their wrongdoing. When I began to act in love\\ntoward my friend\\u2019s niece, she also changed her attitude toward me. She\\nstopped accusing me of things I hadn\\u2019t done, and she actually became\\nfriendly to me. I\\u2019ve since realized that showing people love sometimes\\nchanges them for the better. As I\\u2019ve endeavored to walk in love toward\\nunloving, hostile, and negative people, I\\u2019ve seen them begin to respond\\npositively. It\\u2019s like pouring hot water on ice. Cold, hard characters can\\nbe melted by the warm love of God. \\u2022 Charity Kiregyera \\u2022 Have you ever been\\naccused of doing something that you hadn\\u2019t actually done? What was your\\nreaction? \\u2022 How do Jesus\\u2019s love for us, and the power of the Holy Spirit in\\nus, make it possible for us to love others\\u2014 even those who treat us\\nunfairly? (Remember, loving after a deep hurt might include setting up\\nhealthy boundaries.) But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ\\nto die for us while we were still sinners. Romans 5:8 (NLT)\\n\\xa0\\nRead Verses:\\nMatt.5.44|Rom.5.6-Rom.5.10|Eph.2.3-Eph.2.5|Phil.2.13'