The kingdom of God is about showing kindness.

Keeping love as our focus helps us see people as we should. People with other lifestyles and opinions are not the enemy. God loves them. He died for them, and for us to badmouth or abuse them is an affront to God’s love.

Our enemy is Satan. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,[a] against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Eph 6:12)  When we remember that, it makes it easier to love people, despite our differences.

The Roman soldiers were not anyone’s favorites, but Jesus said to not only extend them courtesy, but do more than they asked. Bless those who persecute you. Stop seeing them as the enemy and start seeing them as being loved by God.

You’ve been given all the grace you need to love. You can do it. Love is a choice. Kindness is a choice. It’s who we are as citizens of the kingdom.

Humility helps you hear God.

There are two things that are vital to our life in the kingdom: loving God (and each other) and hearing the voice of God personally.

If we don’t love God first, above all things, then our priorities are misaligned. And if we’re not loving each other, we’re not obeying God. We need love filtered glasses to view everything in life. And it has to be genuine.

If we’re not hearing the voice of God personally, it means that we don’t have a relationship with Him. Jesus said, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. (John 10:27) You have to hear Him. That means that you have to know Him and He has to know you.

How do you hear Him? You listen with your heart. Still nothing? The key to everything in God is love.  It’s the secret sauce that runs everything. Love makes you humble. Repent for being selfish, arrogant, angry, rude, fearful–everything that you know you need to repent of. Be humble before God and receive His love and forgiveness.

Suddenly the lines of communication open up and you begin to sense His presence and His voice. And the more you hear Him, the more love grows in all the ways you need it. Stay on top of it. Humility is a lifestyle. Don’t allow your communication with Him to get clogged with things you need to clear out.

Once you start hearing the voice of God personally, your life takes on new meaning and direction. Now you’re living in the kingdom with real purpose. So, what’s He saying today?

Jesus made it very easy for us to know who to love and serve: Everyone. Our approval is not required. People do not need to be perfect, pulled together, or washed to be loved. We are all broken, that’s why we need a Savior.

Judgement is not our job. Our job is to love people regardless of who they want to marry, what they eat, or the color of their skin.  Yes, they are probably living outside the parameters that God set up, but love them anyway.

Change comes when people feel accepted for who they are. Once they feel valued, they will be open to hearing what you have to share. But don’t share with a pointed finger. Share with arms of love. Be a friend. Help where you can. Pray for them.

The kingdom of God is about people loving people, and not just other people in the kingdom. The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) was despised by the Jews, yet he was compassionate and generous. Imagine a kingdom where we all lived like that.

If you know you have issues with other people, give them to God. Confess your judgmental attitude to God and ask Him to fill you with His love. Be the heart of God to others and you will release blessing on yourself.

Our salvation is so much more than we know. We think we just got a get out of jail free card, but God has much, much more in store for us. Paul said the church at Ephesus, people who were already saved: I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you spiritual wisdom and revelation in your growing knowledge of him, —since the eyes of your heart have been enlightened—so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints... (Eph 1:17-18)

He encouraged them to get spiritual wisdom so they would understand their glorious inheritance. We need to be enlightened. We need to understand all the wonders that come with our salvation. It must be pursued. We need to ask God for this revelation. He’s waiting to see who wants more. It’s free to everyone, but not everyone will ask for it.

The eyes of your heart have been enlightened by receiving the Spirit of God. He’s given us the opportunity to access all of heaven. Are you interested in what that is? Do you wonder how that might affect your life? Press in and find out. There is a hope and glory that belongs to you.

God does not make our promises automatic. And it’s a good thing too. Many times He will promote us before we feel ready to receive it, but other times, He needs to clean us up a bit. Before we can share love, we have to be able to receive love.

Love God first, then love other people. Everything hinges on those two necessities. Before you can be trusted with promise, you have to love. It can’t be a decision that you make when you feel it’s justified. Love has to flow out of you because it’s the love of God living within you.

This is the one area that will take continued development for our whole life. We have to learn to love more. To do that, we have to humble ourselves and ask God to remove anything that prevents us from loving more. It may involve opening some old wounds that we’ve chosen to ignore. There will have to be forgiveness and acceptance where it’s been hard to do. We have to be renewed in our minds. We have to want to be changed.

Our old nature is pretty stubborn and will exert itself if we let it. We have to be diligent to want what God wants for us. He wants us to love. Everything He has planned for you starts there.

Transformation takes time.

Our salvation doesn’t come with an instant perfection switch. We still have a lot of overcoming to do. Many people accept that Jesus died so they’ll go to heaven, but they lack faith to trust Him for anything else. Plus, there will be a history of bad attitudes to let go of.

The good news is that God knows that and He is expecting us to go slowly. For I am sure of this very thing, that the one who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. (Phil 1:6) In other words, our new life in Christ is a process of being made perfect. God takes us as far and as fast as we’re able to keep up with.

Since we all walk at a different rate, we should not compare ourselves to other people. You don’t know how long it took them to get to where they are. And don’t beat yourself up if you feel human. There’s a reason for that — you are! Our complete perfection will not come until we get to heaven. In the meantime, there will mistakes and bad decisions made.

The important thing is to repent when you know you need to and look to God. His mercies are new every morning. That’s very good news.