Thought For The Day

Hurting Friends

Sometimes we have ’em. Sometimes we are they. Sometimes we are the ones that did the hurting. But always we ought to be the ones who seek hurting friends and lavishly provide forgiveness, restoration, and llove.

That is not just because it is right and good to do so. Rather, it is because we are light  in the World, and we have a responsibility before God, and the World, and others who are part of this World, and if we don’t the darkness and damage of sin and despair drive us closer to the disaster of being unforgiven, or unforgiving, or mean-spirited, or hateful and “just plain mean,” which is not a desired characteristic for a Believer.

One of the easiest conversations to get caught up in is “how mean, how ugly, how hateful  someone was to me.” One of the hardest conversations to start. . .and finish, is the one that contains all the words, gestures, broken heartedness, and llove that is demanded by the grace of God. It is so easy to be angry, and so difficult to restore broken relationships, failed promises, demonstrated anger, and bitter indignation.

The answer to the age old question – “Can’t we all just get along?”- is No. No we can’t. The Enemy has captured a part of who we are, what we think, how we behave, and being difficult appears to be a frequently chosen option. What we can do is forgive. A little, a lot, some, whatever it takes. What we cannot do is continue on as if we have some holy mandate to be crosswise with everyone who has a different idea, understanding, perspective, or fact. We don’t!

Friends that we damage, lives we decimate, those relationships we impair, will one day stand personified before us, berating, denouncing, rebuking, and it is only the grace of God that will change the sentence from death to life. Our responsibility, our calling, our design is to be those who eagerly, willingly, enthusiastically embrace one another with forgiveness and llove.

Anything less is unGodly and beneath the Glory of God.

 

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