“Dare To Love”

dare to love
 
by Dona Hake
 
 
Love does not remember wrongs done against it.” 1
Corinthians 13:5-6  (ERV)
 
 
Today we are going to focus on the power to forgive through love.   NOT your human love, but God’s love within you.  Everyone has a measure of love, but human love has boundaries and limitations. When someone sins against us or hurts us it can be painful. We can be assured that the Lord knows our frame very well,  He absolutely understands our emotions, and our thought processes.He knows what it is like to be falsely accused yet He kept His mouth shut, and He walked in forgiveness, and refused to hate.
 
 
 
Sometimes people say they forgive but they choose not to forget. This is where the whole issue of “taking account of wrongs” begins.    When we take account of hurt, we are making it even harder for our hearts to flow in God’s forgiveness.    Believe me, our memories will faithfully remind us of our hurt.   The mere mention of a person’s name or seeing their face will cause something to go off inside of you, and your memory will replay the hurt you experienced.   Every time you permit your mind and unforgiving heart to replay the past, the pain or hate will take root and go deeper and deeper.
 
 
 
The longer we hold onto the pain, and all the details of the  offense, the more it will eat away at our hearts, and tear us down physically. We are the ones that become prisoners when we choose to withhold forgiveness from the one that has hurt us. I believe we can ask the Lord to help us with the pain and the memories that hurt has caused us. Sometimes even after you have forgiven you may still bear scars from that particular hurt, but praise God you have forgiven, and you are free from the terrible effects of hate and bitterness in your heart! You know when you are free from any pain someone has caused you when you find  yourself able to  talk about the past, and you feel absolutely no resentment toward the individual that hurt or offended you.
 
 
 
 
As a child I have one memory in particular that was painful to me. I was only about five years old, yet if I think about it, it is as if it happened yesterday. I can remember anger being exhibited toward me, and I was unfairly treated.    I can honestly say that I forgave that person for the anger and unfair treatment that was exhibited toward me that day. After I was born again as a young woman I began to experience God helping me to see people as He sees them, He showed me how to forgive that individual and He gave me compassion like I had never experienced.
 

 

We live in a world of hurt and pain.   If you are trying to escape that fact, you are not facing life in reality.  We have all been hurt and maybe some of us have caused hurt to someone and you were on the receiving end of forgiveness. Just remember when people have hurt you, God commands us to forgive.

 
 

Matthew 18:20-21 The Voice (VOICE)Peter:
” Lord, when someone
has sinned against me, how many times ought I forgive him? Once?
Twice? As many as seven times?”Jesus:
” You must forgive not
seven times, but seventy times seven.”
 
 
 

Our God never requires anything of us than He will not equip us to do. Remember also how the Lord Jesus looked down from the cross  and said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Let
us be reminded to look to Jesus everyday as our example. Forgiveness is a must to keep us experiencing and giving His love, and keeping your heart totally free.  I encourage you to dare to love, and choose forgiveness.