Scripture: 1 Corinthians 10:33
“Just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved.”
I hope for your life to be filled with God’s love and blessing. Now I want to share the grace with each of you through this message titled with “The Power to Open the Heart.”
One of the Fables of Aesop tells us that the sun and the wind made a game of letting a passer take off his cloak. The wind first tried to let the man take off his cloak with a strong and rushing blow, but the rougher the wind was the more tightly the man put it on. In the next turn, the sun sent out such a strong light that the man could no longer stand the heat and took it off.
This short story gives us many pieces of lessons. The force to let the other open his heart and to change his heart does not come from a strict command or forceful directions but from warm love.
No matter how right your opinions may seem, if you try to forcefully persuade the other to surrender to you, you cannot achieve the goals. On the contrary, it leads the other to close his heart.
A few people need to be taught and advised because they lack in the ability to put themselves under the self-control. When you talk to that kind of person, the result will be different according to whether you are willing to persuade him unconditionally or talk to him with love.
A maxim says, “Make your eye level proper for the other.” This maxim teaches you not to put your eye level in accordance with yours but the other’s eye level. If you, a mother, rebuke your child saying, “I have told you to study so many times. But why do you not study but instead indulge yourself in the Internet games?” how could that child change and study well?
Only when you put your eye level in accordance with others and measure their hearts, can you find the best solution. Sometimes if the child feels someone else understanding him, it can become the clue to solving a problem. That is because the most important thing is not an act of problem but its motivation.
Thus, if you measure your child with his/her standard and understand him/her, the child can feel your love and his/her heart begin to change. Once one’s heart changes, his deeds also change. How much more does one change in the truth?
As said in 1 Corinthians 10:33, “Just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved,” you have to look at everything from the other’s viewpoint and measure him with his standard. Only then, can you live at peace with everyone and as many souls find peace and rest in you.
Therefore may each of you possess spiritual love that seeks others’ benefits and spread out the fragrance of the Christ so that you can help others open their hearts and them accept the gospel to lead them to path to salvation and eternal life, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I pray!