"As of today I am removing myself from your email list. I no longer wish to have someone tell me to pray for In-Laws who have done nothing but bad mouth me, and try to get between me and my husband. My mother-in-law is like the devil himself. I truly do not believe that Jesus wants me to love and pray for the devil. If Jesus expects me to love my mother-in-law, then Jesus is expecting too much. I'm only human. If Jesus loves my mother-in-law that's his choice. I go to church. I love God, but, I hate her and always will." And with that she removed herself. She is gone.
We all have trouble with the Love part of the Gospel. I don't mean the love one another part, though some people SEEM impossible to love. No.. we all have trouble with the "For God so loved the world" part. The tragedy of this reader isn't that she doesn't love her mother-in-law (though that is tragic). The tragedy is that she has not fully received God's love for her - because if she had - she would LOVE her mother-in-law.
When I - or anyone - fully grasp - through the POWER of THE HOLY SPIRIT - how DEEP God's love is for me... it will HUMBLE ME. It will FLOOR me. It will remove PRIDE. I don't deserve that love. But He gives it anyway. And once I receive that love......if I TRULY receive it.. then the ONLY thing I care to do with it is to GIVE IT AWAY.
If I don't want to GIVE love away, then that is the EVIDENCE that I have never truly grasped or understood or received God's love to begin with. And that is the greatest tragedy of losing my reader. She will never learn love. And learning love is the the foundation of what God is trying to teach every one of His children.
LOVE is a gift or it isn't LOVE at all.
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8
I'm sorry I lost a reader yesterday. Pray for her.XOXO,
Mrs. Older
You are a courageous woman because you seem to be unafraid to speak what you believe. I admire that about you and even when you step on my toes I admire your courage to do so.
ReplyDeleteI lost a facebook friend over an a very similar conversation yesterday. It was the sister of this woman who was the object of her wrath. She took my rebuking a sister in Christ out of love as a betrayal from someone who didn't understand. My position remains that she needs a heart adjustment. Prayers for all who find themselves struggling in this area. I too struggled with forgiveness until I read John 20:23 "Whosoever's sins you remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosoever's sins you retain, they are retained". I have come to understand that forgiveness means asking God not to hold a person accountable for their offenses against us. This does not mean the relationship has to be restored in a case of un-repentance on the offenders behalf, it simply means you are releasing them of accountability to God for their offense against you. Only God can forgive sin, but this verse means we can ask him to pardon someone. Just as Job did for his friends. What a way to love our enemies and free ourselves from bitterness by pardoning someone who has wounded us deeply!
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