Love and Forgiveness.

After I wrote yesterday's post, a verse in 1 Corinthians 13 kept swirling through my mind. This morning and afternoon it is still swirling around in there, so I thought I'd share and reflect on it.

Verses 4 and 5 say: Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

The part about love not keeping record of wrongs really jumped out to me while I was writing yesterday's post. How often do we harbor wrongs done to us to use as ammunition to shoot that person down at a later date? Even after the person made the offense had asked for forgiveness? If we were being loving and were treating others in the way God treats us, wouldn't we "forget" about the offense to bring it up or hold it against that person no more? This made me take a look inside myself. I've brought up things with my husband that had hurt me in the past and that he had apologized for--why? Because I wanted to hurt him. That's not being loving. Not only was I keeping record of his wrongdoings against me, but I was also being unkind to him in the process. I know of other times when I have kept a mental tally of when someone has wronged me. That's not love. God then works through his Holy Spirit (sometimes using other people, a song and also scripture) to convict my heart to bring me back into obedience and oneness with himself and then I ask for His forgivenes and lay my burden down at his feet. However, I have to admit that often something will happen that will make me want to try to pick up that burden again to carry it on my own...

Verse 6 says that [Love] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Bringing up acts of the past that have already been forgiven is not showing love. If I had been showing love to my husband (or to anyone for that matter), I would want to protect the relationship and not want to hurt him.

I know that I have a lot to learn from my heavenly Father in this area and will always have to work at this. Thankfully Father is there to help me and that he won't be keeping record of the many wrongs that I am certain to make along the way to ask forgiveness for. :)

Just a little somthing...

...that has been going through my mind over the last couple of months. Something that my pastor has shared with us on a number of occasions over the last few months. Something that reverberates through my mind and soul. Something of which I am eternally thankful. What is that something? It's God's forgiveness and his "forgetfulness."

In Hebrews 10:17 it says that "'Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.'"

and in Psalm 103:11 it says that: "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us."

Isn't that just amazing?!?! When we ask God for His forgiveness, he forgives us and forgets. He doesn't keep bringing the offenses up again (the enemy does a good enough job trying to tell you "Remember what you did?" People can do the same.). His forgiveness is what I am striving toward being able to give to others--even when the offense is repeated (Matthew 18:21-22).

I want to forgive as He has forgiven me and to be able to forget about it and to not try to reclaim it after I have laid whatever it is at the Throne of God. Because, after all, total freedom in Christ is what I desire and to receive all that my loving, compassionate, kind, forgiving God has in store for me!