Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends. (Proverbs 17:9 NLT) We are reminded that, "When you forgive, you in no way change the past - but you sure do change the future." (Bernard Meltzer) The past is riddled with failures - both ours and those that were committed by others. Some deeply affect us, while others are easily forgotten, hardly even being mentioned in the first place. Deep pain can be felt when there are wounds as a result of those missteps in relationships, but they don't have to be dwelt upon. Instead of dwelling upon them, we need to get them out in the open, let go of the offense, and bind up the wounds with prayer and love. It could be said that forgiveness is so hard because the hurt is so real. I would challenge that with the truth of love being just as real. Hurts happen - healing is likely to happen if we stop 'picking at the scabs' all the time! The moment we choose to not forgive someone, we are choo...
Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. (I John 4:11-12 NLT) Full expression of God's love through us. Isn't it amazing that the unseen God can be 'seen' through the actions of love that exist in our lives? God lives in us - those words ought to make us sit up and take notice of our behavior, shouldn't they? If we would stop for just a moment before we acted or responded, considering that he resides in our hearts, we might just respond a bit differently! His love is BROUGHT to full expression in us - when we love one another, we are bringing others into his presence. And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have...