I’ve never had a great memory. I can tell you what the Bible says, and I can find where it is with my study tools. I just can't recite it book, chapter, and verse. I am a list maker. I forget my “to do’s” if I don’t write them down. I use a calendar and appointment book. If it’s not on that calendar, it doesn’t happen.
It is so very easy for me to forget stuff.
Except hurts and offenses. I can recite them to you years after they happen. Maybe it’s just me...
(I doubt it.)
While doing some bible study, the material being used cited Jesus teaching His disciples in Luke.
”One day Jesus said to his disciples, “There will always be temptations to sin, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting! It would be better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around your neck than to cause one of these little ones to fall into sin. So watch yourselves! "If another believer sins, rebuke that person; then if there is repentance, forgive. Even if that person wrongs you seven times a day and each time turns again and asks forgiveness, you must forgive."
The apostles said to the Lord, “Show us how to increase our faith.” …(Luke 17:1-5 New Living Translation)
I guess so. When instructed to forgive over and over. And over. And over.....
Being told to expect hurts and instructed on how to walk thru them.
Head on. Face to face. Talk about it to THEM, not to everybody else.
Mercy Lord, I indeed do need Your help to do that. I’d rather stuff it down, wait it out, and hope it gets better.
But over and over. The same thing? How can a person do that? Do you just resign yourself to being a doormat? Do you train your heart to be calloused so that it doesn’t hurt?
I say with Jesus’ disciples, “Lord, give me more faith!”
He is the answer. Not me. He taught His disciples, and us, that small but genuine faith is, in fact, a trust in a very big and completely capable God. Not a small me.
Not my ability to believe, but His power to carry me thru it.
Over and over. And over. And over.
Faith must be focused on HIM, and not on me.
Rather than recite my hurts and counting offenses, I should be reciting the attributes of God.
At the top of that recitation is love.
Mercy. Grace. Long suffering. Patience.
He knows all the details. Of every situation, every heart, every intention. Mine included.
He is kind. And He is smart. Smarter than me, smarter than you.
He is just. What He decides will be exactly the right thing, every single time.
He is compassionate. And above all, He is holy.
I purpose to spend my thoughts on reciting His goodness and His perfect love, not reciting all my complaints.
I purpose to take the small grain of faith I have, trust Him that it is enough, and choose to do as He has instructed.
After all, He IS smarter than me.
