Perfect Strength... Perfect Love... Perfect Grace...
In order to give GRACE, love and strength are needed. I think everyone can agree that no one is perfect. Easter is a perfect reminder of this. Christ died for us because we are sinners and are in need of a loving, gracious, merciful God. Through our lives, it is part of our calling as followers of Christ to strive to be more like Him, to experience and begin the process of sanctification.
Six months after my husband left me, he managed to say words to me that stung so bad I lost it. All of the love for him that I had been holding onto and trying to express to him seemed to vanish in an instant. Being left by a husband, in the middle of a pregnancy, the pain of knowing about an affair, hurtful words, and a suicide.... All reasons for me to be bitter and hateful towards God, men, and my life in general. BUT!!! There was a turning point.
After those piercing, false words were said, it just so happened that I heard a sermon about the connection between Love and Faith. With all that I had learned about faith that year (Thanks to Beth Moore and her Bible study Believing God!), everything clicked. I knew immediately what I needed to do. I stopped in my dining room, in front of the window, and cried out to God. "Lord, we hurt you every day and you still love us. My husband has hurt me, deeply. I don't know if I can love him anymore. Please help me to love him the way you love me and all of us who hurt you." The cross flashed before me and the remembrance of what He did for us because He loved us. From that moment on my life changed. I can't explain it! All I know is within 24 hrs. of praying that prayer, I was able to love my husband, to have compassion on him! It was so weird and unlike any kind of love I had ever felt before. Did I love him like a husband? No. Did I love him the way one loves their child? No. Did I love him as a friend? No, not even that! The only way to explain it was that I loved him the best way a human can love in the way that Christ loves us. It was amazing. I began to hurt for him and pray for him... things we all struggle to do for those that hurt us.
Flash forward six and a half years later.... As a single woman, I cannot tell you how many single (and married) women I hear talk negatively about men. "They're men, that's just how it is" "They're all like that" "It's just the way they are" "They all have the same agenda" These statements could go on and on, but you get the point. I beg to differ with all of these statements. Just as you may differ from another woman and you would say you don't act like her, not all men are the same!! Just as a man may make a complete jerk of himself in a relationship, guess what!? If you haven't already, I can almost guarantee that at some point you will make a jerk of yourself... it's called humanity, i.e. human nature. We all say stupid things and do stupid things. You do remember what happens when you "Assume", right? What would happen if you started to look at your neighbor, your spouse, your friend, your boyfriend, your kids through God's eyes??
I want to remind you, for your sake and for the sake of your friendships and any other relationships: our God is the God of Second Chances!!! And the 3rd, and 4th, and 5th, etc.! How many times have you needed a second or maybe even a third chance? Ask God to show you how to love that enemy, the one who has hurt you, the one that irritates you to death, the way that He loves you. Then let Him change you from the inside out. I think the Veggie Tales say it best in the movie Jonah.... watch this video and listen to the words: God of Second Chances
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