We are all a living testament of God’s love. Again, I’ll say, we are all a living testament of God’s steadfast, never-changing, perfect, unconditional, die-for-us, agape, wonderful…love. Whether you are a believer in Christ or not, God loves you and will never stop loving you.
Now i know he loves me, then what?
Yes, God’s love is unconditional, but what is one thing He needs us to do as a believer or one who may soon choose to believe? The answer is repentance. Pride may stop both a believer and nonbeliever from repenting. Therefore, submitting to God, in humility, will help you to turn away from sin and no longer live in enmity with God (James 4:4). In other words, you will no longer be willingly doing all the things He tells us not to do. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up (James 4:10). He will help you to be holy like He is.
In the life of a believer, pride will certainly still be in the picture and it always comes before a fall if left unchecked. On the other hand, when you give yourself fully to God in humility, you are permitting Him to do what He intended to do in your life since you were first created. Note, I did not say born, I said created.
God has a plan for you
God has had a plan for your life before you came to exist, but upon you being born in this fallen world, you came in falling as well. You were born a sinner and pride is the reason we stay that way and God won’t force us to His way. In fact, God is known to oppose those who are proud (James 4:6). So, in order to get back to His plan for our lives, humbling ourselves is a prerequisite.
God is always waiting for us to come to Him in faith and in repentance. In prayer, in praise, in worship, and in thanksgiving. In surrender and submission. Then, He has nothing (like pride) getting in the way of Him being once again reconciled with His precious creation. So I encourage you, if you haven’t already done so, or you wish to rededicate your life, to fully submit your life to the One who created you by going through His one and only begotten son, Jesus Christ, to get to Him, and do it with the utmost humility.
So what’ve we got HERE
One, know and acknowledge that God loves you. Two, throw your pride away like some spoiled food in the fridge. Three, humble yourself and believe in Jesus Christ. In genuine prayer, open your heart to Him and claim Him as your personal Lord and Savior.
The Holy Spirit will then come and dwell in you so that you may know the Father one-on-one. Continue to seek Him and He will not run from you. He will do quite the opposite, He will get much…much closer (James 4:8)
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“If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Matthew 6:14-15. We are blessed to have a Father that forgives us when we do not even deserve forgiveness. That’s mercy right there. The person who hurt you and caused you pain in life may have intended to cause that pain, or it may have been an accident, it may have been ignorance, or it may have been an effect of character flaw. It is true that you cannot reconcile with everyone. Some may have passed away, others may have caused you so much trauma that just to forgive will take everything in you. Still, remember why you choose to forgive: __________
Why Do We Forgive Others?
When you choose to forgive someone, for who’s sake are you forgiving them? For the person’s sake? Or is it for your sake?
Imagine God treating us the way that we deserve. No thank you, I do not want to imagine that. So, forgiving is not only a thing we do because God shows us how it’s really done, forgiving is also something that comes with seeking to be like God as you learn more of His character. As you continue to learn who God is, it will be made plain and clear that He is merciful.
We Forgive Because of God’s Mercy
God sent Christ to die for the sake of washing away all of our sins, because within His love for us, He is merciful. Forgiveness is in the character of God. He shows us true mercy through the forgiveness of all of our sinning against Him. As a believer, we strive to be more and more like Christ each day that we are blessed with. We have a daily decision to make, to pick up our cross and follow Christ. Likewise, we have a daily choice to forgive all those who trespass against us.
In the book of Matthew it states: “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Matthew 6:14-15. We are blessed to have a Father that forgives us when we do not even deserve forgiveness. That’s mercy right there. The person who hurt you and caused you pain in life may have intended to cause that pain, or it may have been an accident, it may have been ignorance, or it may have been an effect of character flaw. It is true that you cannot reconcile with everyone. Some may have passed away, others may have caused you so much trauma that forgiveness will take everything in you. Still, remember why you choose to forgive: You are now living for Christ.
I find that in many instances, family, the people who love you the most, are the ones who hurt you the most. In their minds, their sole aim is to do good by you, but some way some how their efforts sometimes cause the opposite effect. Intrinsically, we want someone to blame for our pain, we point fingers and hold on to the things they did wrong to us so that we may bring it up in a time of heated argument. We really love each other, but what causes this failure to love each other properly? In many instances, I would call it a lack of mercy.
Remember, You Don’t Have All The Answers
We can change the way that we see our neighbors, especially family members, and see that life has its way of hurting all of us. Consider each person’s individual upbringing and the trials they had to go through to this point. This information may be unknown to you. Consider how many people have hurt that person during their own upbringing and how that may have been difficult to recover from. Still, this information may be unknown to you. Everyone copes with life differently, although that does not give people an excuse to share their pain with the people that are now in their life as well as the people that they will continue to encounter in their life.
So what do you do about those neighbors, be unforgiving and hold a grudge towards them? Keep on reminding them of the pain they cause(d)? Keep on pointing out their flaws and shortcomings? Or forgive them for Christ’s sake. Just like you, the devil has told them lies that they believed at some point, or still believe today. Aim to see it from a “we are all in this life thing together” point of view. Most importantly, forgive them because as a follower of Christ we are called to be merciful and forgiving.
Reverse the Roles
Two more questions: Are you perfect? Anybody can answer that question for you and themselves. The obvious answer is “No.” In a big or small way, have you ever hurt anybody? Once again there is an obvious answer to that question: “Yes.” Unlike God, we are flawed beings. We hurt each other all of the time. We all have believed lies that the devil has told us during our time in this fallen world. As much as we would like to be perfect, we aren’t. Coming to terms with that is a good step towards mercy and forgiveness not only towards our neighbors, but also towards ourselves.
When we hurt others, we want them to forgive us. Meanwhile, when others hurt us, we may be reluctant to forgive them. That reluctance may be because of a variety of things. In every case, whatever we hold onto also has a hold on us. There is a darkness that lingers within us when we hold onto whatever wrong others have done to us.
Living according to God’s Word will bless your life, it will bless your past, present, and future relationships. It will help you shed the light of Christ on the darkest areas of your life. You have already been gifted a new life by the sacrifice of Christ. Now you must be willing to do what is hard; what goes against your very human nature. Set your mind and heart on forgiveness and God will strengthen you to carry it out, through the power of the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
If you have been blessed by this, please, kindly go to the Contacts page and sign up to get added to the mailing list; we are seeking God together. God’s word is living and this is a home for it. Feel welcome to return.
