1 Corinthians 13:4,5 “ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud… it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.”
There have been a few people in my life I’ve hated, and sometimes I felt it was plain impossible to improve the relationship. I found the following exchange between Annette and her Grandmother in Patricia St John’s ‘Treasures of the Snow’ very helpful:
“If you hated someone, you couldn’t ask Jesus to come into your life, could you?”
“If you hate someone, it just shows how badly you need to ask Him to come in. The darker the room, the more it needs the light to come in.”
“But I couldn’t stop hating Lucien.”
“No, you’re quite right. None of us can stop ourselves thinking wrong thoughts, and it isn’t much good trying. But Annette, when you come down in the morning and find this room dark with the shutters down, do you say to yourself, I must chase away the darkness and the shadows first, and then I will open the shutters and let in the sun? Do you waste time trying to get rid of the dark?”
“Of course not!”
“Then how do you get rid of the dark?”
“I pull back the shutters, of course, and then the light just comes in!”
“But what happens to the dark?”
“I don’t know; it just goes when the light comes!”
“That is exactly what happens when you ask Jesus to come in. He is love, and when love comes in, hatred and selfishness and unkindness will give way to it, just as the darkness gives way when you let in the sunshine. But to try to chase it out alone would be like trying to chase the shadows out of a dark room. It would be a waste of time.”
Is there anyone you need to forgive? Don’t stay in the dark. Pull back the shutters and let Jesus in today!
Lord, I choose to address the situation with … today. Amen!
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