Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:00 — 4.1MB)
Program D-7413
Love transforms people—it truly does! Researchers tell us that loving and being loved actually changes our brains, changes our thought patterns, and changes our reactions.
That’s what God’s love for us can do. It has the power to make us productive, grateful, kind and generous toward everyone, even people who are not easy to love. For example, here’s one of the changes that we will see in others as we become better and better at sharing God’s love with them.
- Love has the power to inspire someone to greatness.
Do you know someone who is wasting their potential? Maybe they don’t even know they have potential, or perhaps they’re fearful of trying. I wonder—if they knew that you see that potential in them, if you loved them by encouraging them, could it empower them to reach their potential?
Do you remember when Jesus called Simon as a disciple and gave him the name of Peter? He referred to Peter as a rock and said that Peter would play a pivotal role in establishing the early church and spreading the gospel. Was Simon Peter a rock when Jesus called him? No, he had a long way to go before he reached “rock status,” but Jesus called him what he would become, and Peter became the rock of the early church.
I have a dear friend who many years ago was bothered by a stutter. But I saw potential in her; she had the instincts of a performer and so I encouraged her to take small parts in a ministry at church that put her in front of people. She loved doing it so she joined Toastmasters, where she learned to make presentations. Now she is very polished and gifted as a speaker and actor, and that stutter has been conquered. I just loved the potential I saw in her, and she has done what she never thought she could do as a result.
Your love of encouragement could transform someone’s life. Don’t underestimate the transforming power of love.