Open And Receiving
Tuesday May 9, 2017
One of the hardest things for broken people to do is to continue to receive the love of God until we are filled and healed. We’d rather hold a record of wrongs. We’d rather have a little bank account of resentments that gives us an excuse to act out. We want our rights. We want others to make things right with us. We want justice. We want retribution. We want our “pound of flesh.” God's way of dealing with the damage to our souls is to offer us grace, grace for our own shortcomings, and grace for others in their shortcomings too.
Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. (Colossians 3:13-14 NLT)
We need to keep on receiving God’s love until every hurtful issue in our minds and hearts is saturated in His love. How do we do that? First, we receive comfort for every painful thing that has been cluttering up our minds and our emotions and then we let the generous love of God bring healing to those places.
As God’s enduring love fills us with safety and security, we can then bless others with whom we have a relationship. When people around us act poorly and hurt us, we can go to God and receive His healing. If we react poorly to any situation and feel guilt and shame, we need to confess our shortcomings to God and receive His forgiveness. We then ask for forgiveness from the person who was on the receiving end of our poor reaction. In this way, God invites all of us to live in His safe and enduring love.
We love because he loved us first. Anyone who says he loves God but in fact hates his brother or sister is a liar. He doesn’t love his brother or sister, whom he has seen. So he can’t love God, whom he has not seen. Here is the command God has given us. Anyone who loves God must also love his brothers and sisters. (1 John 4:19-21 NIV)
Prayer: Lord Jesus, I receive Your extravagant love and peace. I receive healing for all that hurts. I receive hope and faith where it's hard for me to believe and trust. I receive. I receive. I receive. Amen
©2017 Partners in Hope
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