Before I say
anything else, I want to say this- Thank you for allowing me to be open and
honest on this blog. Thank you for allowing me to share my heart through these
posts and thank you for continuing to read them. I certainly don't deserve your
time or your energy but for some reason, you've chosen to continue reading.
Thank you for that. I pray that you know without a doubt how close these posts
are to my heart. Not because I feel the need to share words of wisdom, of which
I have very few, but because they grow and they develop out of things that The
Lord is teaching me in my own life. Very seldom do I sit down to write a post
spur of the moment. They almost always come through times of prayer and
reflection on situations in my own life and they also almost always grow and
change throughout the days and weeks, before I even sit down to write them.
That's what happened with today's post.
I feel like God has
been teaching me so much recently about forgiveness and grace. Today that
concept grew even more into the idea of love and forgiveness. You see, I think the two really go hand in
hand. Without love, there's no reason for forgiveness. And true forgiveness, is
born out of love. For weeks in our Sunday school class we've been talking to
the girls about Jesus as the great high priest who intercedes for us. We've
talked about the job of the high priest in offering sacrifices for the sins of
the people and we've talked about how Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice for our
sin through his death on the cross.
I keep going back
time and time again to that picture of Jesus on the cross. I keep thinking
about Him hanging up there after being beaten and mocked, after being betrayed
by those closest to Him, after praying in the garden for God to let the cup
pass from Him. And what I keep seeing is the only example of love and
forgiveness that I ever really need. What I see is Jesus, the very Word of God,
come to earth in the form of a man to take the punishment for my sins and your
sins. Not because he had to, but because he chose to. In my mind I see every
picture of the crucifixion I've ever seen, I think of the most gruesome and
heart wrenching pictures or performances I've ever seen and I know, oh how I
know, that doesn't even touch the surface of the pain and hurt he felt that
day. I know there's no possible way my small human mind can ever fully
comprehend what was done for me on the cross.
And in my mind I hear Him say "Father, forgive them, for they do
not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:34)
And in that moment,
my head falls in shame because I know that I have disgraced the sacrifice on
the cross so many times. As a believer in Christ, I tell the world that I know
who God is and that I strive to live more and more like Him each and every day.
I tell them that I know the love of Christ and the sacrifice that was given for
me. But every single moment that I choose selfishness and pride over
forgiveness and love, I put myself above God. I put myself in a position where
I say that I know better than God does and that I'm more worthy of love and
forgiveness than anyone else.
Life is not easy and
as I've been reminded lately, sometimes the people that need our love and
forgiveness are those closest to us. Unfortunately we live in a fallen world
with sinful people. No matter how hard we try, we are always going to make
mistakes and we are always going to hurt people around us. But in everything I
do, I have to go back to Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross. If he can give
love and forgiveness to a world full of sinners in that moment, I can give
forgiveness and love to those around me. Last time I checked, no one's tried to
crucify me today.
As The Church, God
calls us to be different. He calls us to be in the word but not of the world.
He calls us to take a stand on biblical truth without wavering. I think that
for a very long time, The Church in America has sat back and allowed the
culture to dictate the church instead of the church dictating the culture.
We’ve decided that not offending anyone around us was more important than
standing on the truth of God's word and because of that, the church, our
country, our families, our schools, etc. are in the shape they are in today. I
can't think of very many people that would argue with me when I say it's time
for The Church to stand up and be the church. While many may agree, very few
will stand and make changes. And while I think the church so desperately needs
to get their head out of the sand and stand up on God's truth to face the
battle raging, these last few days I've gone back to one thing- WE MUST ACT IN
LOVE.
1 Corinthians 13:1
says- If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I
have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. I don't think I want to know how
many times I've been a noisy gong because I've chosen to act without love. The truth is, the cross tells us everything
we need to know about giving forgiveness and love to those around us. God's
word tells us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. In the very
midst of a messy sinful world, God reached down and sent His son to die for
sinners, of which I am one of the worst. And why did he do it? Because he loved
me. And he loved you. And he loved every single person that would ever walk
this earth and have breath in their lungs, because he created us and he wants
us to be with Him. He didn't have to do it you know. He could have chosen to
allow us to take our own punishment for the sins we would commit. He could have
allowed us to face eternal separation from Him. That's what we deserved. But
somewhere along the way, he decided that he would take the punishment for us.
He decided that forgiveness and love were worth his death on the cross. They
were worth every single bit of pain and suffering he would go through. Aren't
you glad that God didn't change his mind about offering forgiveness. Aren't you
glad that he didn't pick and choose who he would offer the free gift of grace?
Aren't you glad he isn't anything like you and me?
God is so gracious
in the love that he lavishes on us when we really don't deserve it. Yet we are
so very picky in offering that same love and forgiveness that we claim lives
inside us. I know that there are a lot of people walking around with deep deep hurts,
hurts that remain so tender today they can't be spoken, hurts that seem like
they'll never heal. I know that some of those hurts have come from people close to us, and while
I know that, I know that God also commands us to forgive. I know that there are relationships that may
never be restored on this earthy and that's ok. What's not ok is to choose not
to forgive those people. There can certainly be healthy boundaries in
relationships but choosing not to forgive those people is in direct opposition
to God's word. No where in scripture do
I find God saying, "you can forgive Him but you don't have to forgive
her." That's certainly not biblical and that’s certainly not what Jesus
did on the cross. Instead we have been commanded, "Get rid of all
bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of
malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as
Christ God forgave you. - Ephesians 4:31-32"
If we make start
making The Cross the thing in which we base every single thought and action, we
start to change. We start realizing that it's less about us and more about
making the name of The Lord known. We start realizing that God so graciously
gave us his love and forgiveness when we did not and we would not ever deserve
it and if he could do that from the cross, we can do that in our lives. We
start realizing, and I mean really realizing that in this world we will face
trouble but in light of the hope of eternity, it means nothing. The cross gives
us that freedom. The cross gives us the ability to face any and all persecution
with the hope of glory, knowing that we are safe and secure in the Savior's
hand and that nothing can snatch us from Him. The cross allows us to let people
off the hook when they have wronged us and show them the love that God so
graciously gave us.
There are a lot of
times when I don't want to let people off the hook. When I want to hold on to
the hurt that they've caused me, when I want to shake them, when I want to yell
at them and tell them exactly what they've done wrong, when I want to tell them
that I'm right and I know it, but that’s not why Jesus came and died. He didn't
come and die so I could be right or so that I could always have my way. He came
so that I could have life. He came so that the person to my right and to my
left might also have life. He came to make a way that was different from the
temporary sacrifices the high priest made each year for the people's sin. He
came so that each of us could spend eternity with Him. To do that, he had to
take the punishment for our sins through death on the cross, and offer us the
free gift of grace and forgiveness. And to do that, there had to be a reason-
that reason was love.
When I choose to act
out of selfish ambition or gain, I miss out on the opportunity to show the life
changing power of God's love and forgiveness to those around me. I miss out on
an opportunity to be different from the rest of the world.
The way I react to
people who are mean to me, rude for no reason, or that I just don't like says
more about my pursuit of the Gospel and God's love than it ever says about those who have
wronged me. The truth is, everyone expects me to react poorly, to react in
anger and to withhold love when wronged. What a beautiful gift God gives us in
those moments. He gives us the opportunity to show love and forgiveness to a
world that so desperately needs it. He gives us the opportunity to make his
name known and to give an account for the hope that is found in us. If we all
started living life that way, I can only imagine what this world would be like.
Today God is calling
some of us to forgiveness. He's calling us to let people off the hook and to
show the light and love that is within us. He's calling us to step out of our
selfishness and to realize that it's less about us and more about Him. I don’t
know about you, but I want to love like Jesus loved. I want to be the change
that people need to see in the world and when they look at my life, I want the
to know that the love and forgiveness that God so graciously gave me through
his death on the cross actually means something to me. I want to throw a kink
in the way they see Christians and in the way they see my Savior. I want them
to know that NO MATTER WHAT, I forgive them and that I love them. Not out of my
own power or strength but because of the one who lives in me. Because there is
one that is greater and there is one that gives the ability to live free from
the bondage of sin, death, anger, and shame.
There is one that allows me to live that love and the reason is that he
first gave that love to me. Not because he had to, but because he wanted to and
because he loved me that much.
