1 John 4:19-21 19We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
God has clearly given us a command to love everyone. We as teens and young adults have a very hard time doing this. We get angry, we hate, we hurt, and hurt others. God called each person on earth our "brother" becaue he is our brother in christ. SO if you are a true believer, and you say you love God, but you tell others you hate someone, you cannot truly be a full believer. God's people FORGIVE EVERYONE. There are no exceptions. No matter what happened that caused you to hate someone, no matter how tough it is to forgive them, God commands us to do so. Is it easy? Certainly not. But the best things in life are never easy.
My story: my friends have always told me that i'm too forgiving, but i just tell them that its because i have to forgive. When i'm not holding a grudge against someone, I feel so much happier. When i was little, I was raped by someone within the family that i saw often. at first all i could think about was how wrong this person was and how much i hated him, but as i got older and matured in Christ, i learned that people do things wrong, i sin, you sin, he sinned, and we all sin. But GOD forgives us, constantly, and we need to be Christlike in every way. I forgave him, not because i thought it was ok to do what he did, but because God asked me too, and that step of faith has given me so much more comfort than not forgiving him and seeing a shrink all my life.
Jesus forgave upon the cross. he prayed to God "father, forgive this people, for they know not what they do." Sometimes a wrong doing is unconscious. People don't realize they hurt someone, and yet others wiill hold it against them.. Sometimes people know they sinned, and they are ashamed forever, because the person they did wrong wont approach them and say "This hurt me, but because Christ loves me, i love you, and i forgive you."
This verse really stuck out to me, because i know many of my own friends hold grudges against family, friends, enemies. whoever. but God places people in a position of our lives for a reason. Biological parents may not always be in the picture, and i know this is true for many. But do you know their whole story? If so, will you take God's challenge to forgive them? any person who takes their place in your life as a mother or father. Will you allow that person to be involved? Will you trust God enough to lead you completely in your life? what if a close family member was killed by someone? This could be a VERY difficult situation to forgive. But it's ask of us. Of course its hard to say something like "What you said about me really hurt, and I wanted to tell you that it hurt me, but i want you to know that i forgive you, and if there is something I have done to upset you, i ask you to forgive me." Chances are the person will shove you off or give you a rude comment. but believe me, they'll think about what you've said about them.
More than anything, what i want you to take out of this post is
F
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G
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V
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S
Its the most powerful thing next to love, and i know each of us has someone we need to forgive, or someone who needs to forgive us..
My challenge to you, is to approach someone you need to forgive, or ask for forgiveness from. We never know when God will take us or someone else from the world, and they need to know NOW.
Thank you for reading.
