A new love can be intoxicating. But sooner or later - and it's usually sooner - reality hits hard. You both wake up to a shocking truth: your beloved is... human. (Gasp!)
And like all humans, we mess up. We hurt each other.
That hurt, even when it's 100% justified, stings. It lingers. And if you let it fester, it can (and will) end everything. We've watched it happen. Budding relationships and even decades-strong marriages have crumbled quietly under unresolved bitterness and scorekeeping.
But what if I told you there's a superpower you have free access to? What if our Lord Himself gave you the exact blueprint for dealing with it?
FORGET THE BAD:
1 Corinthians 13 says, quite plainly, ‘Love keeps no record of wrongs’.
Love doesn’t pull up the receipts from last year, last month, or last fight. It is basically intentional amnesia - and we are called to adopt as our attitude in life.
Our Lord said forgive seventy times seven. In other words, no one can sin enough against you to drain your forgiveness tank. I know this sounds practically impossible. I get it. But it CAN be done. Here's how:
Remember that you are safe:
NO ONE has the power to truly hurt you. Not when you're a child of God.
You are whole, worthy, holy, and blameless. God Himself refuses to condemn you anymore. He sees you as His heir, blessed with EVERY spiritual blessing.
No one can touch your peace, your joy, your freedom in Christ.
So stop being afraid of getting hurt if you love others too much or too forgivingly. You can afford to be dangerous with grace, for God's unending love envelops you at all times.
Remember that He is good:
God is not just good - He is unbelievably good to His children. He doesn’t just care when you’re well-behaved. He cares even when you mess up - intentionally and repeatedly. Scripture says: “When sin increased, His grace increased all the more.”
Forgiveness of others comes easy when we remember just how much we’ve been forgiven. God wiped all our mess away with His blood (Ephesians 4:32). So we forgive others - even the undeserving.
You’re in the position of the man who was forgiven his debt of TEN THOUSAND bags of gold - and had no right to shake someone down for a measly 100 silver coins.
There is literally nothing anyone can commit against us that warrants holding it over their heads as a grudge..
And that is the essence of it.
Forgiveness isn't something you desperately pump out of a dry, empty heart.
It’s no fake mimicking in the hopes of pleasing God.
Being able to forgive comes from letting the goodness of God and security of His presence, along with the humbling remembrance of our own sinful, hurtful selves, overflow and wash away the pinpricks of other faulty humans.
This is the hallmark of true love.
So why not show the world a glimpse what real love looks like and forgive the way our Father has been doing, every single minute since the beginning of time?
