I’ve been hurt so many times in the past, why should I bother with all this reconciliation stuff?
The bottom line of our love and reconciliation efforts boils down to what Jesus has done for me personally. 2 Corinthians 5 ties it together well. See vs 14-21:-
For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.
And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.
God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
Since Jesus died for both me and my brother (who has offended me) we are both a new creation in Christ. Jesus has dealt with our sins and has lavished us with His love. I have been reconciled to God and I should become an agent of reconciliation. I should seek reconciliation with others.
Until heaven comes, relationships will always be painful. But as more and more Christians treat each other with the grace that Jesus has given us, we will begin to find joy and depth in our relationships.
Relationships will always remain shallow and painful if we keep running away. But if we work through this process outlined in the Scriptures our relationships deepen and mature and give us more and more joy/elation than pain.
Prayer:-
- Pray that God would bind together the teams that are headed on mission this year. Ask God to build unity, focus and purpose into those teams. Pray that all finances will be raised as needed.
- Spend time praising God for who He is and what He’s done both in your own life and in the history of redemption/salvation.
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