FREE TO LOVE

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37).

The inability to forgive someone is really judgment of that person. My anger, and even my hurt, do not give me permission to judge. It certainly does not give me permission to be angry. When I am devastated by someone's action, I have a choice what to do with the disillusionment and hurt. If I allow that hurt to define who I am, unforgiveness will take root in my heart. Then I will be in bondage to my pain.

The Holy Spirit invites us to acknowledge our pain so we might forgive. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom,” Paul writes (2 Corinthians 3:17). God does not want us in bondage to hurt or disillusionment over someone's failure. That hurt can become our own failure. I have the freedom and power to forgive. God calls us to give our very best, and that will not happen if there is judgment, hurt, and unforgiveness. My very best is to allow His love to flow through me, and to intentionally love with His love....no matter how I feel. His love will eventually change my cold hurting heart into one that is pliable in His hands. Disillusionment and hurt will dissolve, and I will be free from its bondage.

How about you? Are you tired of the pain you feel when another person, either intentionally or unintentionally, hurts you? Let the pain go. Let the disillusionment and hurt go. Make a decision to forgive. Look to Christ as your perfect sacrifice because no one else can be that. Realize that no one is perfect. The Lord “will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you, and will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). Instead of a cold heart of unforgiveness, you can have a heart of flesh that loves with His love. Your heart will be completely His instead of your own. You will be free to love instead of judge. Whom Christ sets free, is abundantly free.