This summer, we are reviewing The Love Project, a church-wide initiative designed to learn together how to show love better to the community around us and to each other. This study is a key way for us to connect meaningfully with people around us, and make a lifelong impact in our community! Hi, this is Dorette Schaal with an encouraging word for your day. We are preparing for the one another project as a church body this fall, and this study serves as a great reminder that loving others is the greatest way to live. Together we can make love a way of life, and positively change our world. This week is all about forgiveness. Here is your dailyeword.
This week as we look at forgiveness as one of the 7 powerful characteristics of a loving person, I want you to consider what forgiveness does not do.
It does not come easily
It does not remove all the consequences of wrongdoing
It does not immediately restore trust
It does not remove the offense from one’s memory
What does forgiveness do? It brings reconciliation and closure when it is received. Most importantly, it brings release to the one who gives it. So we know that offering forgiveness can really be a challenge, it won’t make everything right overnight, or restore trust immediately, and certainly the mind will try to hold on to the negative memory as long as possible. So is forgiveness worth the effort it takes? Most definitely!! When we make the choice to walk in forgiveness, we are putting love to the test. Do I love enough to make this right? Do I love the other person enough to make this right? Do I love myself enough to make this right? For the believer, our answer gets to be yes! Sometimes forgiveness happens one small scoop at a time, in other words, to take the whole mountain of pain down at once can be overwhelming. It can happen supernaturally, but most often, forgiveness begins with a choice to forgive, and becomes reality as each time a thought of the person who did you wrong comes to mind, you choose forgiveness once again. We once had a huge mountain to forgive, when an employer we trusted, stripped our livelihood and our reputation through false statements he made about us. Heartbroken, we had a choice. Does this man deserve forgiveness? In our minds, not for how he treated us. But did we know we would forgive? Yes Did it come easily? No. Did it take time? Yes. Did the relationship ever get restored? No. But forgiveness was necessary, and it brought healing to us. We were released from the evil accusations completely. And it was up to God to take care of the rest. Forgiveness may not come easily, but definitely worth the effort for peace in your life.
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