Confession # 61 - Now that IS easy!

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. ...So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Don't you wish life were more like the Staples button?  That was easy...Yes I wish life were easy, but the only button that works that way for me is the one that only certain people can activate.  An easy button that that launches a self-destruct sequence in my behavior.

Today while at lunch, my closest friend pointed out that there seems to be a hold some people have over me and how, like pressing the Staples button it's soooo easy to set me off course.  

Unfortunately, she's right.  There are certain people that can press my easy button.  She also mentioned that most others don't have the same effect on me, they don't have access to the easy button.  

Why???  Why do I give these people permission to press my easy button?  Why do I allow the things they say and do to effect me so deeply, where others I can simply shake off?

The answer is one word, history.  The history I have with these people seems to be a remote control for my easy button.  The past wrongs, hurts and disagreements are lurking there inside my  heart and whenever I am faced with a small reminder of these issues, the button is pressed and the self-destruct sequence is launched.

Well I can't change history.  I don't have an easy button for that now do I?  I can't go back and erase those memories, or re-write the story.  

But I can rewire that button with scripture so that when it's pressed it launches something new; it launches 1 Corinthians 13, Love.  

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

By allowing God to work love and forgiveness in my heart those hurts are healed.  Love is the only thing that protects my button from the insurgents.  1 John 4:18 says, "There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears is not made perfect in love."

John is right.  I'm afraid these people don't love me.  I'm afraid they will reject me.  I'm afraid they will hurt me again and again.  And that's probably true.  They will hurt me again and again.  I have been rejected, I have felt unloved.  There's no easy button for this but John tells us, "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.  They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.  We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us.  This is how to recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.  Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." I John 4:4-8

If I'm not continually showing the love of Christ to all people, even the people in my history, than I do not know God.  And although it doesn't seem easy, the Bible tells us it isn't a heavy load.  "This is love for God: to obey his commands.  And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world."  1 John 5:4-4.  I realize that it's going to take prayer, patience, peace and continued reliance on my God to get me there.  But now it's time rewire that easy button and make it useful for the Kingdom of God instead of allowing it to be Satan's stronghold over me.  

These people need love for without it our relationship is nothing, my witness is nothing, my life is nothing. "Love never ends. ...So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13.   Love is greater than my faith, it's greater than my hope and it is the only thing that can keep me from being a slave to my past.  

You may have people like this in your life.  Friends, relatives, exes.  Ladies, history no longer has to define you because when we allow God's love in, our past can simply refine us instead.  Like I said it won't be easy but nothing is impossible with God, and for Him, it IS easy!  "This is how we know that we love the children of God; by loving God and carrying out his commands." 1 John 5:2

Dear Heavenly Father, oh Lord, I need your love to cover the history that I've allowed to define me and my relationships with certain people.  Teach me to rewire my easy button to launch your love instead of my destructive behaviors.  Father for my sisters-in-Christ who have experienced the same issues please Lord do the same.  In Jesus' name I pray.  AMEN