True Love and How to Walk in It: Chapters

Chapter Ten
LOVE KEEPS NO RECORD OF WRONGS

Wrongs …
1 a: an injurious, unfair, or unjust act: action or conduct inflicting harm without due provocation or just cause
2: something wrong, immoral, or unethical ; especially : principles, practices, or conduct contrary to justice, goodness, equity, or law
3: the state, position, or fact of being or doing wrong: as a: the state of being mistaken or incorrect b: the state of being guilty

Hebrews 8:12 (Amplified)
For I will be merciful and gracious toward their sins and I will remember their deeds of unrighteousness no more.

Hebrews 10:17 (Amplified)
He then goes on to say, And their sins and their lawbreaking I will remember no more.

WOW! That is huge! How many of us can say we do that? It is so hard not to hold a grudge. How hard is it not to remember a hurt or wrong? Over and over again, the people of the world have turned their backs on God. Adam and Eve, He gave them life and a perfect home and they turned their backs on Him and believed the lies of the devil.
The Israelites, God saved them from slavery and from an army out to kill them and was giving them a perfect home and yet they still turned from Him to a golden calf they had made themselves and wanted to go back to Egypt to be slaves again because they didn‘t believe God‘s promises.
What about Jesus, those (the Pharisees) who should have recognized Him as the Savior, hated Him and had Him killed. What rejection, what hurt and what a wrong. But instead of throwing our stupidity and ignorance in our faces; God opens His arms to us, just waiting for us to run into them.
Let’s look at someone from the bible who held a grudge and someone who forgave. Haman hated the Jews. Haman was an Agagite and the Agagites and the Hebrews had been at war with each other since the days of Joshua and Saul. Because of his hatred of the Jews, Haman had set out to destroy every single one of them. Because of this hatred and his pursuit of it, his relishing the Jews destruction, Haman himself became the author of his own death (Book of Esther).
Now let’s look at Joseph. Here is a boy who had almost been killed by his brothers but was sold by them to strangers. He was a slave and he became a prisoner (Genesis 37, 39-40). Can you imagine? When he finally saw his brother’s again did Joseph, in his high position, punish his brother’s for their betrayal? No, he blessed them with food and land and his forgiveness (Genesis 41-45). WOW!
Let’s look at Paul. Here was a man, who made it his life’s mission to destroy Christians. As Saul, he condemned Christian’s to death and imprisonment for their faith in Jesus (Acts 7:59-8:2,9:2). Did God strike him down dead? Did God punish him? NO! God gave him a new name and a new path (Acts 9). God made him the biggest champion of Christ known, even to this day.
That is a hard one isn’t it? Not holding on to a hurt. Not holding on to a grudge. It happens and it happens early. When my daughter was in kindergarten she would tell me on different occasions different girls who would be mad at her because she didn’t do something they wanted her to do or played with someone they didn’t want her to play with. Of course with children, in a few hours or the next day, all was forgiven.
But as we get older we tend to keep those hurts and store them in our hearts and let them fester. I think we can all admit that we have been guilty of this at one time or another. I know I have. But the more that I have learned about God’s love and how I can walk in that love, it has really helped me to let go. Plus, we need to remember that the enemy is behind this. First we need to look at the person who has hurt us. Try and think about the motive behind it and maybe the insecurity of the offender. We need to remember what the Word says:

Ephesians 6:12 (Amplified)
For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere.

The devil is the destroyer (John 10:10). He wants us up in arms all the time. He wants us angry and hurt. He knows that it is a way to open a door to him and once he has his foot in the door it will be so easy to open it all the way.
All we can do is forgive. Now I know that it is harder to forget. But eventually if we try, if we don’t focus our attention on that hurt we can choose, and must choose, to forgive and forget. Will it be easy? Probably not. But we can do it with the grace of God. You may not feel any different but eventually you will become aware that you’re not focused on it anymore and that will grow and eventually you will become aware that the mention of it doesn’t bother you anymore. How do we do this? Prayer - telling God you want to forgive and then praying about it. God has given us all the same amount of faith and grace, we choose how much we take and use.
What if you have hurt someone? How should we deal with that? The way Jesus would. Years ago I betrayed a friend by divulging a secret to another friend. After I started re-evaluating my life, I felt convicted about it. I asked God to forgive me and I let my friend know what I had done and how sorry I was and what a horrible friend I had been. My friend never acknowledged what I did so I hope and pray that she forgave me. I asked God to forgive me and my friend to forgive me. That is all I can do. Resolve the situation with God and whoever you may have hurt.
Now what if those people don’t want to forgive you? Well, that will be their choice. But that’s okay. We just need to show love to those people. That doesn’t mean we have to be abused or stepped on, just that we need to continue to show them love. Be polite and let them know you love them and always continue to pray for them. We can pray for their hearts to be softened and for us to be strong in our “love walk”.
We need to remember that the Lord knows our hearts and sees our efforts. So as long as we are doing what we know the Lord wants us to do, we are doing the right thing and that is all we can do. Just like God can’t make everyone love Him, He and we cannot make anyone love us or forgive us either.

Matthew 6:14-15 (Amplified)
For if you forgive people their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses.


Chapter Eleven
LOVE DOES NOT DELIGHT IN EVIL

Delight …
1: a high degree of gratification: joy; also: extreme satisfaction
2: something that gives great pleasure
3: archaic: the power of affording pleasure
Evil
1 a: morally reprehensible: sinful, wicked

Isaiah 65:12 (Amplified)
I will destine you [says the Lord] for the sword, and you shall all bow down to the slaughter, because when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not listen or obey. But you did what was evil in My eyes, and you chose that in which I did not delight.

The Lord is good.

1 Chronicles 16:34 (Amplified)
O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever!

Everything God touches is good (Psalm 145:9). Everything from God is good (1 Timothy 4:4). Evil comes from the devil and we are daily teased by him to choose his way (Acts 13:10). God is not happy with this because He knows that evil (sin) will only lead to our destruction.

Ephesians 4:29 (Amplified)
Let no foul or polluting language, nor evil word nor unwholesome or worthless talk [ever] come out of your mouth, but only such [speech] as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as is fitting to the need and the occasion, that it may be a blessing and give grace (God's favor) to those who hear it.

Psalm 91:10 (Amplified)
There shall no evil befall you, nor any plague or calamity come near your tent.

To me this is a very good description of God that I feel gets lost in the reality of life. I feel a lot of times the circumstances that we may experience in life are put upon God totally instead of us looking at what the bible shows, that there is an enemy out to destroy us and in doing so puts all the blame on God. We saw Satan do that in the garden with Eve. Satan persuaded Eve that God was not telling her everything - that He was lying to her. Even Adam tried to blame God because He gave Eve to him. That is what the devil does. He takes the Word and twists and distorts it to help deceive us into believing his version instead of the Truth.
I am always so saddened when God is blamed for an accident, tragedy, sickness or a death. Because we are taught that God is in total control we sometimes believe bad things happen to teach us a lesson.

1 John 1:5 (Amplified)
And this is the message [the message of promise] which we have heard from Him and now are reporting to you: God is Light, and there is no darkness in Him at all [no, not in any way].

This saddens me beyond what I can say. People will quote Job or even Paul’s “thorn” as proof. However if we closely look at these we need to remember that Adam handed over the authority, God had given him, over the earth to Satan. What does that mean? That Satan was given power over the earth and everything and everyone in it. In Job, Satan said he had been roaming the earth and God asked Satan if he had seen Job and how much he loved God. Satan told God that if Job didn’t have God’s protection he wouldn’t love God so much. And Satan told God to take away what he had. But God told Satan that Satan had the authority over everything around Job. But look and see that because of Job’s faith in God he himself was protected from Satan’s hand and in the end received double of all that Satan took from him.

Job 1:10-12 (Amplified)
Have You not put a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have conferred prosperity and happiness upon him in the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has, and he will curse You to Your face.
And the Lord said to Satan (the adversary and the accuser), Behold, all that he has is in your power; only upon the man himself put not forth your hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.

Now what about Paul’s “thorn”. We know that the thorn was a messenger of Satan. Paul was so successful and such a great example of God’s love and grace. Satan is going to try and destroy anyone who is a success in spreading the Good News. But what we need to look at is not necessarily the thorn but what God told Paul when Paul asked Him to take it from him.

2 Corinthians 12:8-9 (Amplified)
Three times I called upon the Lord and besought [Him] about this and begged that it might depart from me;
But He said to me, My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and [b]show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me!

God is saying here, when we as men and women are weak seek God and His grace makes us strong. Where the devil tries to attack us God’s grace protects us. Psalm 91 perfectly illustrates this.

Psalm 91 (Amplified)
1 HE WHO dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty [Whose power no foe can withstand].
2 I will say of the Lord, He is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God; on Him I lean and rely, and in Him I [confidently] trust!
3 For [then] He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.
4 [Then] He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings shall you trust and find refuge; His truth and His faithfulness are a shield and a buckler.
5 You shall not be afraid of the terror of the night, nor of the arrow (the evil plots and slanders of the wicked) that flies by day,
6 Nor of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor of the destruction and sudden death that surprise and lay waste at noonday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you.
8 Only a spectator shall you be [yourself inaccessible in the secret place of the Most High] as you witness the reward of the wicked.
9 Because you have made the Lord your refuge, and the Most High your dwelling place,
10 There shall no evil befall you, nor any plague or calamity come near your tent.
11 For He will give His angels [especial] charge over you to accompany and defend and preserve you in all your ways [of obedience and service].
12 They shall bear you up on their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13 You shall tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the serpent shall you trample underfoot.
14 Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he knows and understands My name [has a personal knowledge of My mercy, love, and kindness--trusts and relies on Me, knowing I will never forsake him, no, never].
15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life will I satisfy him and show him My salvation.

We are protected by God. How can we deny what the Word says? Just as Jesus told the Pharisees that if He was working with the devil, because He was casting out demons, then it would be Satan working against himself. So couldn’t we say that if sickness and death were from God that Jesus was working against God himself? That wouldn’t make sense would it? The Word does not lie!

Isaiah 53:4 (Amplified)
Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy].

Matthew 8:16-18 (Amplified)
When evening came, they brought to Him many who were under the power of demons, and He drove out the spirits with a word and restored to health all who were sick. And thus He fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, He Himself took in order to carry away] our weaknesses and infirmities and bore away our diseases.

Bad things happen as a result of the fall and from the enemy himself. He uses it to weaken our faith in God. But Jesus has defeated the enemy!
Let us look at the things we do everyday. Some of these may not be inherent evil but maybe just not good choices.

We need to watch the things we say:

Proverbs 18:21 (Amplified)
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life].

We need to watch what we entertain ourselves with:


Job 31:6-8 (Amplified)
Oh, let me be weighed in a just balance and let Him weigh me, that God may know my integrity!
If my step has turned out of [God's] way, and my heart has gone the way my eyes [covetously] invited, and if any spot has stained my hands with guilt,
Then let me sow and let another eat; yes, let the produce of my field or my offspring be rooted out.

Psalm 119:37 (Amplified)
Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity (idols and idolatry); and restore me to vigorous life and health in Your ways.

And we need to watch how we act:

John 13:14-16 (Amplified)
If I then, your Lord and Teacher (Master), have washed your feet, you ought [it is your duty, you are under obligation, you owe it] to wash one another's feet.
For I have given you this as an example, so that you should do [in your turn] what I have done to you.
I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, A servant is not greater than his master, and no one who is sent is superior to the one who sent him.

Philippians 2:5 (Amplified)
Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: [Let Him be your example in humility:]

Mark 16:15 (Amplified)
And He said to them, Go into all the world and preach and publish openly the good news (the Gospel) to every creature [of the whole human race].

God sent Jesus to earth in human form so that He could be a true example and sacrifice for us. If He had come in God form, it could be said, that is how He did what He did, said what He said and acted how He acted. He is our example of God’s love toward His children and how through Christ we know how to live and have faith that with His help we can do all things!