A Lifestyle of ForgivenessSample

DAY THREE – PAY NO ATTENTION

First Corinthians 13:5 says that love “does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil.” The Classic Amplified Bible says, “it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].”

Wow, is that even possible? Can you imagine, when someone does something that hurts you or makes you mad, that you would take no notice of it, pay no attention to it? If, when someone offends you (intentionally or not), you just forgive automatically, before offense even has a chance to hit your heart or get stuck in your mind? 

I think it’s in the Bible for a reason. Yes, I think it’s possible! I think it’s life of freedom! And we can do it because God’s love resides in us. Romans 5:5 says, “The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” God’s agape, unconditional love is in us! Not natural human love — not an ooey-gooey feeling — but the supernatural God-kind of love is already in the heart of every believer. That means you and I can make a choice every day to yield to it. 

Living that way every day will take some practice, for sure. But we can’t even begin that journey unless we’re aware of it and we want to act on it. 

The only way to walk in this kind of love is to get really good at forgiving the big things and the small things. The better we get at forgiving the little irritations and “unfairnesses” of life on a day-to-day basis, the easier it is for us to forgive truly painful events in our lives.