Love = Forgiveness

I was having a battle before bedtime. It was my heart feeling hurt and mad, yet at the same time feeling loving and forgiving. I was feeling these feelings over something that happened not too long ago that created a hurt spot in my heart. I have had moments of feeling sad, mad, and wronged. I have moments were I feel like hugging the person and slapping the hell out of them at the same time. And tonight (or rather yesterday since it's after midnight now), I was asking the Lord to help me to deal with these feelings. I am struggling with being truly forgiving. I wanted to make sure that I am not just saying that I forgive someone, I want it to be true deep in my heart.

• Forgiveness: is the freeing of a person from guilt and its consequences, including punishment; usually as an act or favor, compassion or love, with the aim of restoring a broken personal relationship.

I was crying out to God to help me with these feelings of anger. So I looked in the back of my Bible and found the word anger and I found a reference to 1 Corinthians 13:5 which says

"[Love] is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs."

It hit me that this is what it was all about. So I read the entire chapter. It begins with the most powerful sentence in 12:31; "And now I will show you the most excellent way..."

13:1 If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,^[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

I found that passage so comforting. It took all doubts of what I my actions and response should be to the wound in my heart. Love. The Bible tells me exactly what love is and that love is directly related to forgiveness! I am so thankful for the Holy Spirit speaking to my heart. I have been asking the Lord to speak to me through the Holy Spirit and give me wisdom about the things in my life I am dealing with now and the things I will deal with at any time in my life. I am so glad that God is specific in His Word. And I am so happy to be able to hear Him speak in my heart!