By Linda Joseph –
Just one word that changes our hell to heaven – LOVE.
Any time your heart is disturbed, your day is going wrong, you mind cannot keep your emotions in check, do a quick check to see if you are at loggerheads with someone and IMMEDIATELY clear the love channel. With your best friend, spouse, children, friends, parents, siblings, neighbours, priest, pastor, church mates, boss, colleagues or even strangers.
Bible asks us to believe the best of people (1 Cor 13:7), give them seven times seventy chances (Matthew 18:22) and love without keeping a record of wrongs(1 Cor 13:5) Love does not EXPOSE your flaws to others, but covers your transgressions (Proverbs 10:12) Forgive those who expose your flaws too 😉 – its a two-way street. There is no Biblical justification for ANY unforgiveness, whatever may be the sin. ‘He/she did that to me, how could he/she, you have no idea, God’ are the lines Satan will repeat to us, over and over. For every foe, God promises His friendship. Or that good Christian friend might still be loving you, warts and all. Don’t forget that, while stewing and festering in resentment and pain. Forgive, be the bigger person. Then the battle belongs to the Lord. We have to clear the air first, because we are given chances daily by an all-forgiving God. Take it to the Lord in prayer and then AFTER that, take it to the person concerned. Murky waters and wounded souls are healed by His Spirit, but it begins with YOUR LOVE, YOUR EFFORT. Don’t give the enemy a chance, cos he is prowling around like a roaring lion, waiting to see whom he can devour (1 Peter 5:8).
Ninety percent of the time, people who wound us don’t even realise how much or if even they have hurt us. It’s their own high expectations, desire to see us do things their way. And we hurt for the same :0) Our expectations of niceties/ support from them, our desire that if only they would understand things our way :0) Satan blinds both sides!
Christians are to live exceptional, joyful, fulfilling lives, NOT dead or lethargic or bitter. Even a ministry – is not more important than love. Sometimes we are so busy serving God or keeping up an image of our ministry that we have no time to love Him or His people.
God is available, to fill your love tank DAILY. One broken cistern cannot fill another. Jesus can. As Saint John Paul II said, you cannot conquer evil by evil, but only by love. He knew the secret and he practised it faithfully, with friends, even with babies, his enemies and with people of other faiths.
Pray, pray and come out of the bitter tank with the Holy Spirit’s help. Don’t waste another day. DO IT TODAY. Do yourself a favour right now. FORGIVE. Ask for forgiveness. Make that phone call, write that email, visit that person. No more pain, replaying lies from Satan. The Word says, the truth will set us free. May the truth set US free. Not them/him/her who wounded me, but ME :0)
1 Corinthians, Chapter 13
1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b]but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.
11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.
12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.