The Bible mentions the topic of "forgiveness" 45 times. It talks about "love" 143 times and "joy" 55 times.
In a world that can be so hard & hateful & mean & spiteful & sarcastic & negative & deceitful, I would think it would be the other way around - shouldn't we be reminded to forgive those people who are so unloving and unjoyful more often than we're told to love them?
We've been hurt. Oh, how our hearts hurt. We yearn for love. For acceptance. And we've been wronged. Just let us pull out our lists. These lists as long as our arms and chiseled in stone on our hearts. These hurts that it will take a miracle to erase. We're broken. We're hurt. We need to forgive, but can we forgive when these wounds still burn? When these scars still feel so fresh? Surely we need to be taught how to forgive.
But...God. Is. Love. The very embodiment of it. You can't get more loving than Him. And He lives inside of us.
GOD lives inside us.
LOVE lives inside us.
If we are truly living love, then everything else takes a backseat. LOVE overshadows everything else. JOY flows from that love. Not happiness. JOY.
Joy. Comes. From. Love.
It's a direct result. Without love, you can't have joy. You may think you can. Success. Recognition. Fame. Honor. All these can make us feel "happy" for awhile.
But does any of it last? No - it's temporal, temporary, terrestrial. It doesn't bring long-lasting, eternal joy. Only love can do that.
And what about forgiveness? God knows we need it and need to give it. Could it be that if God-Love truly dwells in our hearts, truly sits on that throne in the center of our hearts, not pride, not hurt, not self, if LOVE truly dwells there, the need for forgiveness diminishes because we're so full of love & joy we don't have time or energy to count, catalog, and categorize the wrongs done to us?
Because sometimes isn't LOVE itself a form of forgiveness?
"Love keeps no record of wrongs."
Why do we want to keep that record? Why do we so quickly compile a list of all that negativity - all the hurt & anger & bitterness? How is that love?
Why would I voluntarily carry that load I've been instructed to set down? It weighs me down, hurts my back, bends my head from the weight. And as my head is bent, where am I looking?
Down. Earth. Temporal. My feet. Self.
This record of wrongs keeps me from looking up. From seeing LOVE. From giving LOVE. From living LOVE.
Who is on that throne then? Who is at the center of my heart then? Self. And the record of wrongs. Love is de-throned so I can focus on all the wrongs done to me. All the hurt & anger & bitterness & betrayal & everything that LOVE isn't, that GOD isn't.
It can't be both.
I can't claim Love, walk under His banner, AS His banner of Love with anything but LOVE at the center of my heart, seated on that throne.
God-Love Must. Take. Center.
When Love truly fills me, there is no room for anything else:
- I can speak beautifully but WITHOUT LOVE I. Am. Nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1)
- I can know all the theology but WITHOUT LOVE I. Am. Nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:2)
- I can tithe but WITHOUT LOVE I. Am. Nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:3)
- LOVE suffers. As. Long. As. It. Takes.
- LOVE shows/lives Kindness.
- LOVE is not envious.
- LOVE is not proud.
- LOVE is not self-seeking.
- LOVE is not rude.
- LOVE is not out for itself but OTHERS.
- LOVE doesn't have a quick temper.
- LOVE doesn't automatically jump to the worst conclusion.
- LOVE never rejoices in evil.
- LOVE is truthful.
- LOVE IS IDEALISTIC ("bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things").
- LOVE NEVER FAILS.
Love is Outward and Upward Focused.
There is no room for prideful, selfish self in Love.
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