Love Letter part 4
When you write someone a love letter you don't fill it up with all the things that are wrong with them. You don't tear them down. You don't remind them of their past mistakes. All the "bad" stuff they've done. Because that's not love. Love doesn't keep a list of rights and wrongs. And, contrary to what popular belief would have you think, love is NOT blind. That idea that we ignore people's flaws when we're in love with them just isn't true. Love isn't blind. Love sees clearly. Love sees what's INSIDE instead of what's on the outside. So while love doesn't ignore people's flaws, love understands that we are MORE than our flaws. That, truly, we are flawless. Look at what Jesus did on the cross: "For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God's word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault" (Ephesians 5:25-27 NLT). We always talk about cleaning up our acts. Jesus cleaned up our act. We always talk about turning over a new leaf. Jesus got us into a whole new tree. Not the tree of knowledge of good and evil (the tree of death), but the tree of life. Presented to Himself as a New Creation. I'll never forgot when I was sitting in a church camp meeting, and the preacher asked, "Raise your hand if you've ever sinned." And, of course, everybody raised their hand. Which was his point. Except for the person sitting next to me. And she was a rather shy person, so I thought maybe she just didn't want to participate. So I leaned over and asked, flippantly, nonchalantly, "You've never sinned, eh?" And she said, "Of course I haven't. I'm a new creature in Christ. Jesus took all those old sins away." Shocked me. Left me speechless. Cuz she was right. That old stuff died with the old man. Those who are born of Christ CANNOT sin. The Bible says so. "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God" (1 John 3:9). When you understand that you are the light of the world, you will understand that there is no darkness in you at all. And that's what God's love letter says. That's what He wrote on your heart. He washed us with the Word (which is Jesus, which is love), and made us clean. There's an accuser that tell you all manner of things about you. About how you're not good enough. About how your past defines you. But the truth of the matter is... it doesn't matter what anybody says about you. People are gonna talk. Haters are gonna hate. But you are not what people call you. You ARE what you answer to. Because what you believe--either the report of the world or the report of the Lord--is what defines you. So read that love letter that your heavenly Father wrote. Read it... and accept it. Receive it... and release it. See yourself as you truly are and you'll start to see others as THEY truly are. The deep calls out to the deep. The light in me thinks the light in you is awesome. That's our true selves. That's our connection to each other. So don't let anybody tell you what's wrong with you. Because there's nothing wrong with you. Let God tell you what's right with you. Let Him love the hell right out of you!