1 Peter 4 NLT
7 The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. 8 Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.
10 God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. 11 Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.
So many say they love, but is it the truth?
True agape love flowing from the spirit of the living God will be long suffering and cover many sins. It will cause us to move from a place of esteeming others more highly than ourselves.
What does it mean to cover?
After Adam and Eve had committed "the sin" in the garden of Eden, God laid out the consequences but still desired to have relationship. His first act after this was to cover the sin by doing 2 things:
The sacrifice of an animal to fulfil the requirement for the propitiation of sin
He covered the nakedness of Adam and Eve with the animal skins to absolve of the shame which had come about from their "knowledge" of sinfulness
To mirror God accordingly our hearts need to be transformed to pour out Agape Love.
Agape love is unconditional and does not in any way want to expose or injure one who has caused pain
We will be a people even with our speaking to cover those who have sinned against us.
I find so many who operate with a spirit of gossip and slander and don't even realise they do this. At the root of this is the need for vengeance - the thinking if someone has hurt and wounded me, then I should have nothing to do with them AND NEITHER SHOULD ANYONE ELSE
Ask God to clean and purge our hearts today of any kind of offence or desire for vengeance.
Sometimes we need to take action to move away from abusive situations and situations where we are being taken advantage off. It requires grace to be long suffering and even while resolving situations there is no need to be vengeful.
Such actions would never please God, though they seem to appease the flesh AT FIRST IMPULSE.
The truth is unforgiveness, not letting go, slander and vengeance will only hurt our own selves in the long run
It is a seed sown, that will bear a fruit in it's own season, sometimes with sleepless nights and more.
Father God
I pray that you will change our hearts to reflect your Agape love, we realise that our actions and speaking reflect the state of our heart and will only affect our own selves.
We choose to cover the multitude (quite a lot) of sins in our day to day relationships.
Have your way Lord
In Jesus name
Amen
Walk good in Christ
Till we meet again
Pastor J
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