Romans 5 : 8 NKJV
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
“Some people say the world’s best illustration of unconditional love is found in a dog’s response to its owner. They say, “Dogs don’t care if you are a good person or a bad person—they love you all the same.” Without taking anything away from mans’ best friend, there is actually a better example. In fact, the world’s only permanent example of totally unconditional love is the love God has for sinners: “…while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Paul Gossman, pastor of Peace Lutheran Church in Covington, Washington, explains his mission this way: “To establish people firmly in [God’s] unconditional love for them through Christ” and then spread “His love to our local communities and beyond.” Once we have experienced God’s unconditional love, our mission is to manifest that same love to others: “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4 : 32).
If you have experienced God’s unconditional love, look for the people in your world with whom that love needs to be shared.”
David Jeremiah
Journey
“There is nothing the Christian can do to make God love him more, or love him less. God’s love for His people is infinite and unconditional.”
John Blanchard
I want you to stop for a moment and really think about the time when someone really hurt you…maybe it was physically,…or emotionally,…whatever the cause is not important. It is the hurt that I want you to remember. Think about the pain and maybe even the suffering you experienced from this ugly intrusion into your personal life by another person or event. Are you up with me?…Are you mentally there?
Now I want you to remember how much it hurt and how long you kept experiencing the pain and ill, improper feelings about the person who inflicted this pain into your life. Did you stay hurt and mad about them for a long time? Are you still to this day carrying with you on your mental shoulders the anger or even hatred against the perpetrator of your misery?
Has it been fun and enjoyable to pack around these ungodly feelings and thoughts about another of God’s creations?…one made in His own image,…just like you? I seriously doubt that your carried suffering has been the least bit enjoyable…….
Forgiveness is the only real thing that you personally can give to any one who has harmed you, hurt your feelings, or brought any kind of suffering into your life. No matter what they did or how they did it. Now that is fairly easy for me to sit and type or you to sit and read,…but…it is a much more difficult proposition to actually do. It takes a really good, well-grounded, Christian man or woman to actually forgive someone who has brought misery and suffering into their lives. Forgiveness goes against all our human nature to self-protect or to retaliate against the negative force. Only a Godly based love of your fallen fellow man or woman can break through your built-in hedge of self protection which keeps you from forgiving this person who has harmed you. It is the power of The Holy Spirit of God, if you will only let it take over your carnal flesh, that can and will soften your compassionate heart and grant you the ability to forgive your violator.
Un-forgiveness by anyone who has experienced a violation or harmful action from another individual is an ugly and miserable experience. When you fail to forgive a person who requests your forgiveness, you are disobedient to what God tells us to do…therefore your failure to forgive is a type of sin. Such a failure to act on your part only increases the amount of hurt and guilt you now have to carry on your own shoulders. It’s a Domino Effect.
Now if a person has harmed you and they don’t subsequently come to you and request your personal forgiveness for their violations,…it is truly a sad thing,…but you should forgive them anyway…yes…even if they don’t ask.
You ask, Why should I? The answer is really quite simple…because it is what God wants you to do…that’s why.
Failure to forgive those who have trespassed against you puts you into bondage and anguish…not those who have violated you,…but to yourself. The miseries you suffered are still being mentally packed around in your own mind. It is like carrying around a 100 pound sack of rocks all day every day from the time you get up in the morning until you go back to bed at night. Your suffering continues,…while there is little or no suffering on the part of the person who violated you. Your on-going suffering just grows bigger and bigger and eventually will begin to spill over into the other areas, attitudes, and relationships in your own life. NOT GOOD.
On the other hand, once you forgive the violator(s), it is like dropping that 100 pound sack of rocks…Boom straight to the ground it falls…instantaneously. Now there is no more weight for you to have to pack around. You have been released…set free from the bondage of un-forgiveness! Your good countenance, positive attitude, smiling face and happy heart will begin to return to you and your personality. Other people will begin again to enjoy your company. You will feel better, be happier and that will actually increase your physical longevity…Please notice all of the blessings that come to you once you have forgiven those who hurt you.
Forgiveness is something God gives us, His created beings, for our own benefit and blessing. Like all of the good things given to us by our Creator, we must choose to accept it and take possession of it. If we don’t make such good choices, then we will become unhappy and still suffer ever-increasing, on-going anger and misery. Failure to accept God’s gifts for our own benefit only brings more and more self-inflicted misery into our own lives. It does not take a mental giant to conclude that it is not very wise to voluntarily bring harm and suffering onto oneself.
Everything God created for us had a specifically designed good purpose. If we are wise enough to take advantage of those things He provided to us to use,…and we use them for the designed plan and purpose He intended,…then our life will be enjoyed and will have great abundance above and beyond all we could ask for or even imagine.
The key to your happiness is your increasing productivity. Keeping diligently busy at an honest task always increases your personal productivity. It is your expended diligence, not the task itself, that God’s wants to see you performing. Cheerful, loving, compassionate, diligence will always increase your productivity.
Now as you live and conduct your life in and around other people, there will always be conflict between individuals. This happens because of the sin-nature of the flesh. We live in a fallen world.
Where there are people, on this earth, there will be sin.
Where there is sin, on this earth, there needs to be forgiveness of sin, if peace and love are to flourish as so intended by our Creator.
This is the very reason and purpose of God’s sacrifice of His only begotten Son for all of the sins and transgressions of all people against each other. The shed blood on Calvary’s cross was for everyone, once and for all, to be forgiven for any and all of their sins…past, present, or future. Such forgiveness was for everyone alive at the time of the crucifixion of Christ AND for any and all who were to be born after it.
If you want to Love Like God Loves, then you have to do it the way He wants it done. You have to be willing to ask God Almighty to FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US.
Allow me to give you the secret to living a long and happy life…Forgive the unforgivable and love the unlovable.
Why should you do that????
Because Jesus Christ did it for you over two thousand years ago…while you were yet a sinner…that is why!
God’s Greatest Blessings to All of You……………..