The song in the video below made me think, and honestly, I didn’t want to. I just wanted to plug my ears and ignore it…
…these lyrics:
“This is love. This is hate. We have a choice to make.”
Does this mean if I’m not choosing to love, then I am choosing to hate?
Ouch.
To often I wait around to make the choice until my emotions change. I sit around in my funk and wait until I feel like being forgiving. I wait until I feel like the person I have issues with is acting like one who deserves to be loved or at least acts in a way to make it easier to love them. But this is not the way of Jesus.
His Word says:
Do not say, “I’ll pay you back for this wrong!” Wait for the Lord, and he will deliver you.
He says when asked how many times to forgive:
“Not seven, but seventy times seven.”
It is not natural. It doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t feel good.
Yet, it is the way of Jesus, and I call myself a Christ- follower. Who and what am I following really? Love? Or hate?
And these lyrics:
“Give me grace to forgive them, cuz I feel like the one losing”
It has to be from Him, His grace, for me to take a step and swallow my pride and choose to love. To face the real possibility of rejection. To be brave enough to love despite not feeling loved, resting in the One who loves completely. Is His love enough? Do I grasp just how amazing His love is? Do I rest enough in it that I allow it to fill the void, the breaks that happen to my heart from others who are also just needing grace and their cracks filled up, too?
Thank goodness God doesn’t wait to love me until I am acting like one who deserves to be loved. Why do I think this is ok for me to do this to another?
Ephesians 4:32
