SCRIPTURE: For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. (Galatians 5:6, NKJV).
QUOTE: “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. However nothing can be done without love and hope.” -Hellen Keller.
NOTE:
FAITH is like a door that swings on the hinges of love. Unforgiveness or bitterness will be a barrier to the full expression of your faith. Offences are a distraction in the journey of faith. Once you become offended, you start veering off course. Inner wounds have a way of having negative impact and being a clog on the wheel of your faith life. We can be expert in observing spiritual disciplines, but without love, we won’t make any faith-sense to our world.
The bible says in Hebrew 12 verse 14; “follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the lord”. Learn to live peaceably with all men; you cannot control somebody’s action towards you, but you can decide your reaction to them. God will simply take a stroll away from any situation in which you have refused to broker peace. Our leadership moves won’t add up, even with our lofty faith, if we are lacking in forgiveness and genuine love.
ILLUSTRATION:
Sally Baxter had a burden. Having grown up as an emotionally and sexually abused child, she spent most of her twenties working through issues of forgiveness, redemption and identity. Sally’s burden was not for herself, it was for untold numbers of women who were living silent lives of suffering; women who lived with cloud of shame, remorse, bitterness over abuses. She got to a point where she had to forgive her past, reconciled with her parents and brought closure to the impact of “the sins of the fathers” on her life. Then, she reached out with empathy and faith, for the healing of others.
REFLECTION:
- What “weight” must you lay aside today, so as to run with endurance the race before you?
TWO YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: 2 Kings 7 – 8, Psalm 22