Quiet time on my fave couch
Time and time again, I am left aMayzed at the way God speaks. Right now there are so many thoughts in my mind and so many things I want to say that they are spilling out of me, and I don't know how to word them properly. (Yes, even my 'florid eloquence' fails me at times like this! Hahaha)
1 Peter 3
8Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. 9Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.
Matthew 5
44But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you..
1 Peter 4
8...love covers over a multitude of sins
Thinking back, so many of the bible passages and words and songs that have ministered to me over the past couple of days were so aptly placed by God in such a way to lay the foundation for what I now have come to realise - that I should not respond in anger or resentment, or even in a condescending pity or so-called 'righteous anger'. God's love has enabled us all to love others - and our calling is not only to love those who love us and are good to us (for even the pagans and tax-collectors do that, Matthew 5:46-47) but to love those who wrong us. These things I have always known in my mind, but it is only now that I truly know know it.
How much more liberating it is to be able to, in the strength and grace that God so generously provides us, rise above getting back at those who wrong us, than to gain 'sweet revenge'. Sweet revenge is indeed an irony and I can attest to that because in my moment of weakness when I responded in spite and said things I now regret saying (true, though they may be), the feelings that came over me were nothing sweet nor peaceful nor satisfying. Only guilt. Wretchedness. And a disturbing, restless conviction of my own hypocrisy.
But now...
Lord, I commit to pray for those who have wronged me, I ask that you help me to love them and to be merciful and gracious, as you have always been to me. Help me to take my eyes off the wrongs that have been committed against me and to see that they are nothing compared to the wrongs that mankind has committed against You. O Lord, thank you for your great and wondrous love, which makes all this possible. Amen.
1 Peter 3
8Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. 9Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.
Matthew 5
44But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you..
1 Peter 4
8...love covers over a multitude of sins
Thinking back, so many of the bible passages and words and songs that have ministered to me over the past couple of days were so aptly placed by God in such a way to lay the foundation for what I now have come to realise - that I should not respond in anger or resentment, or even in a condescending pity or so-called 'righteous anger'. God's love has enabled us all to love others - and our calling is not only to love those who love us and are good to us (for even the pagans and tax-collectors do that, Matthew 5:46-47) but to love those who wrong us. These things I have always known in my mind, but it is only now that I truly know know it.
How much more liberating it is to be able to, in the strength and grace that God so generously provides us, rise above getting back at those who wrong us, than to gain 'sweet revenge'. Sweet revenge is indeed an irony and I can attest to that because in my moment of weakness when I responded in spite and said things I now regret saying (true, though they may be), the feelings that came over me were nothing sweet nor peaceful nor satisfying. Only guilt. Wretchedness. And a disturbing, restless conviction of my own hypocrisy.
But now...
Lord, I commit to pray for those who have wronged me, I ask that you help me to love them and to be merciful and gracious, as you have always been to me. Help me to take my eyes off the wrongs that have been committed against me and to see that they are nothing compared to the wrongs that mankind has committed against You. O Lord, thank you for your great and wondrous love, which makes all this possible. Amen.
Labels: God, thinkingoutloud
posted by may at 12:29 AM
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