Many books have been written with advice on living a good life or how one should live to achieve success. These books often contain a point or two, but you soon forget it and continue your old way of doing things. 

However, if you read the Bible’s advice and make it part of your being, this new lifestyle can genuinely make a lasting impact in your and other people’s lives. 

Here are five words that we must learn by heart and consciously make part of our being: 8Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble.  

Because all of us are created to be unique, each with their own ideas and way of doing things, it’s not so easy to always be agreeable. A related word is being like-minded. We should all try to be agreeable, even if we don’t agree on everything. We must be open enough so that we can learn from others. 

Put aside your inflexible way of doing things for a while. Comply with the other person’s actions. Maybe it takes a little longer, but no time is wasted on wars. Harmony pulls off a lot more points than winning your way of thinking and doing. 

Compassion literally means “to suffer together”. When you see someone else’s suffering, you feel what they feel and want to relieve their suffering. You cry together. You endure together. 

A friend called me and said it was Friday night and he had no money for food for his family. I had just tiredly collapsed onto the sofa. Compassion then means getting up, taking the frozen venison pie from the freezer, being on the road for an hour, and handing the food over with a sincere smile and a grateful heart. 

When you fill a plastic bottle to the top with water and give it a light squeeze, it overflows. When one is full of love, it also usually spills over and makes an impact on others. 

We must make sure that our love tanks remain full. We must allow God’s love to fill it through His Word and the working of His Spirit. 

We must let His love flow through us. It should fill our tanks to overflow and spill daily into the lives of people around us. It will change the world for sure. 

It’s such a shame that our heads make our decisions and not our hearts. So easily we start adding up in our heads, and then our heads prevent our hearts from doing good. We may have to delete our sums and allow our hearts to inspire us to just do good. 

We are Jesus’ hands and feet on earth. When our hearts motivate what we do, people will experience Jesus in their lives today through us. And of course, we must do it with our own selves watching from the background.  

Let’s learn these five words by heart. Agreeable, sympathetic, loving, compassionate, humble. If we manage to always live like this, we and the world around us will look very different! 

Scripture
1 Peter 3:8-11 

Reflection
Does your life really make a difference to others?
How can you live with these five qualities in all circumstances?
Who can help you do this? 

Prayer
Father, I’m grateful and want to make a difference. On my own it is not possible. You will have to help me, please. I ask this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.