Love is patient and kind.
Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.
It doesn’t demand it’s own way.
It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
1 Corinthians 13: 4-5
Over and over we hear this famous scripture. We quote it all the time when talking about “love”, it’s in almost every wedding ceremony, and you can go to any house decoration store to find it printed on something to hang on your wall.
As many times as we hear or see this scripture or talk about love, do we really take the time to apply this to our life and it become how we live?
I want you to take a moment…read this scripture at the top again…
…now I want you to sit and ask yourself these questions…
- Is there anyone in my life that I am holding a wrong, bitterness, or un forgiveness towards?
- Is there someone that I am jealous of that I treat differently because of it?
- Is there pride in my heart?
- Have I been controlling a situation and demanding my own way with a person, with God?
Take a moment now and truly check your heart, ask yourself these questions and answer them honestly with God.
Now I want you to take a moment to listen…
What is God saying to you now? What do you need to confess to God, repent for?
Is God asking you to confront this person?
I want to first remind you, YOU ARE HUMAN. Its O-kay to have these feelings, it doesn’t mean that you are a bad person. It just means you have been hurt. However, its not okay if you do not deal with them and just sit in it accepting it as “okay” for you to feel the way you do because “they” hurt you and did something that you might deem as unforgiveable or as betrayal.
…I want to remind you again, you are human…and add, but so are they!
I felt this pounding in my chest, heart is heavy, as I turn the pages to this chapter about love and knowing as I read these verses that my heart is far from living this truth out in a situation and with people that brought so much pain, people who I deeply love and care for still. I know I have said “I forgive them”, so why does it still hurt? Why do I still have this jealousy in my heart? Why can’t I let this go? Why is there this feeling, that this isn’t over yet? I prayed, “God please help me to truly love and not feel this way anymore, i don’t want to hold this wrong in my heart, i want to be free from this.”
The answers were simple and profound-
Choose to let go.
Choose to not be jealous because you have no reason to compare yourself.
Choose to make things right and ask God to guide you in restoration.
To Choose means – “To want; desire, and decide to do something”
In order to walk in freedom, you have to want and desire to do something about your situation.
I read the next verses.
“Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful,
and endures through every circumstance.”
We live in a culture that breeds this idea that if someone hurts you, just walk away. People in your life will even tell you “They really weren’t your friends, I can’t believe that they did that to you, you don’t need them, they didn’t really love you”…How many times have you heard that, or even said that to a friend?
[Please note, if you are in a abusive situation or in danger then YES walk away]
What if, just what if…We understood this concept that Jesus displayed on the cross about sacrificial love and implemented it into our life. Jesus AFTER being flogged with a whip, thorns placed on his head, carrying a cross by himself, being beaten and nailed to the cross up front of and by the very people that Jesus loved more than anything and spent his life pursuing; said “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”.
You may have heard this story several times but let me make these points.
Jesus died to himself, with the help of his father. He didn’t give up on us, He knew that people were a mess but HE still CHOSE to love us anyways. He knew that what the people needed was more important then the pain that he had to suffer in the process.
Restoration is -“The action of returning something to the former owner, place or condition.”
GUYS!!! How cool is it that when Jesus died for us, He returned to us the relationship that we were intended to have with God in the first place?!?!?!
Not just that, He gave us the ability to do the same with the people in our lives. He gave us the HOPE that things can be restored back to its former place EVEN AFTER damage has been done, that the slate can be wiped clean, hearts can be healed and relationships can grow in the process. This is so counter cultural to the world we live in but its what God has called us to do, no matter how hard it is.
What if we lived this kind of radical life where we started choosing to give God our pain and suffering so that others can know Gods love for them?
What if we chose to not give up on the people in our life that we “love” and ask Gods help in restoring the messes we have made, and not keep a scoreboard of the wrongs that have been done?
What if as believers; we would start calling each other out of self pity and into a higher standard of loving people unconditionally?
What would happen if we stop pointing the finger and blaming people for what they did, and start accepting the reality of our decisions?
The truth is, we are all messy people that need each other. The only way this is possible is through the power of the Holy Spirit working in our lives, leaning on and trusting in God to help us endure through every circumstance that comes our way with people that we love. Power of the pack!
The enemy is at war, He is fighting for your soul to be filled with sin and to harbor feelings that are against God and with people, and not for them. He loves division, and for you to sit in your yuck. Not only did Jesus die for us to have Freedom from sin, but he also gave us the HOPE that we can cling to is when we are up against the enemy. We can look to Jesus for help through our worship and praise to Him, to defeat the enemies plans and claim the victory that Jesus died for us to have.
The victory is already ours, we just have to choose it.
