More thoughts on forgiveness

I surely hope that y'all don't think that this week, I'm striking a deceased equine repeatedly...... (Grin) My grandma would have said, "Don't beat a dead horse!"

I don't mean to bore you.
I certainly don't mean to offend.
But the Holy Spirit gave me just a few more thoughts to share this week. Hope that's OK!!

Are we overcomers?
Do we contain, in our earthly vessels, the spiritual quality of forgiveness? Forgiveness is a way to overcome..... to overcome anger, to overcome bitterness, to overcome pain.
We've all struggled with this in one way or another. Getting over being hurt can be truly difficult. But there is a large but subtle difference we need to see -- while it is easier to be bitter than to forgive, it isn't easier ON us. It's just easier FOR us.
What is easier ON us, is being able to forgive! And that will take love. Love inspired by His wondrous love for us.

So, step one in this process of overcoming is this: love has us covered.

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.  (I Peter 4:8)

Right off the bat, first and foremost, however you want to express it, Peter is saying that "Hey, this is important!" What follows those words? "Love."  Paul says almost the same thing in I Corinthians 13.... he talked about being able to do some wonderful things, but if there was no love there as a motivating factor, it wasn't worth a plug nickel, as my grandma used to say.
Peter also says to love "deeply." Other translations say, "fervently" or "intensely." I kinda think that is important. Why? Well, our anger, and hurt, and unforgiveness for someone can be pretty intense, too! So our love needs to be intense for us to have overcoming forgiveness.
What does he say next? "Covers a multitude of sins." I don't think he means to shrug them off. To say, "no big deal." To gloss over sins. What I think he is saying to us is that in order to forgive, we need to choose our battles, so to speak. Not make mountains out of molehills, and have unforgiveness in our hearts for small reasons.
So, to bring all the horses into the corral, Peter wants us to love each other, and to love deeply. He seems to imply that the greater the love, the deeper the forgiving spirit, since love can cover a multitude of sins.
Here is the latch on the door of the corral: the stronger that I love someone, the more I will fight to work through the offense and place it firmly behind me. It's simple -- I will cherish the relationship more, and then work harder to make sure nothing jeopardizes it!

Oh. But there's the rub.
When someone we care about deeply is the one who sins against us, doesn't it hurt that much more? Think about it..... it's true. The pain is deeper, the closer we are to someone. We're more likely to harbor resentment and hurt. It's different when a stranger hurts us -- we can easily dismiss it, because they don't mean as much to us. But when it's someone we love? It cuts more deeply.
Very, very true. But it's the love we have for them, and God's love for us, that will together form the foundation for our being able to show overcoming forgiveness. In the heat of the moment, our pain won't let us think, "Hey, I want to resolve this!" but deep down, we want it to be fixed. And it's that moment when we let love override our pain, that we are in a position to forgive:

Hatred stirs up conflict,    but love covers over all wrongs. (Proverbs 10:12)

You know what happens if you have a fire and you blow on it with an old fashioned bellows? You give it more air....you feed it. It gets bigger! What about if you threw on some dry leaves, kindling wood, or a pine knot? Yep, it gets bigger still. That's what happens in our lives, when we feed conflict with anger, bitterness, and resentment. It's fueled, and gets even bigger. But when we smother a conflict with forgiveness, just like like smothering a fire with a blanket, the fire dies out.  Love can put the fire out.

We'll continue these thoughts next time....