Love is not natural

I'm enjoying Wiersbe's 'On Being A Servant.' I never would have picked this book up had it not been sent to me for free (no offense, Warren), so I consider it a "God-send." I am really trying to pace myself too. I don't want to rush through just to get it read, but it's more one of those books that I need to let seep into my skin. Today there were two items that struck me:

(25) "The love that we need for ministry is not a natural ability: it's a supernatural quality that only God can provide. When the people we serve irritate us or disappoint us, the first thing we usually do is pray for them and tell the Lord to change them. What we ought to do first is pray for ourselves and ask God to increase our love. Otherwise, we may give the devil a foothold in our own hearts, which will create problems the next time we try to minister to those people..."

Hmm. Yep. True that.

On the same page he points out a truth about Christian service he says we often overlook: "God is as concerned about the servant as He is the service." Yeah... if all God wanted was to get the work done, he could send his angels and they'd do it better and faster. He wants to do something "in" us and "through" us though. Good points for me to remember.

peace.