In Revelation 2, John writes to the church in Ephesus, and in verse 4-5 says this: "4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.". Again, I am no Bible scholar but I know Beth Moore has done her homework and I wanted to share this with you. According to Beth the word forsaken in the Greek is the same word as forgive in Matthew 6:12 "And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." I, for one, found this very interesting. The word in both places is afihmi, which means “to let go of or release". She went on to make the point that if you are holding on to unforgiveness you don't have any room for love. I don't know about you, but I think that's true.
I once heard that unforgiveness is a prison and the prisoner is you. I've worked hard in my life to forgive people that have hurt me and move on but it's not always easy. I think it might be easier if we knew on the other side we'd have more room to love, at least that's what I'm hoping. So, I'm asking myself these questions "what am I holding onto? Am I holding onto my First Love (Christ) or am I holding onto unforgiveness?"
I want to love more, I want to be someone known for showing the love of Christ. Today (Valentine's Day) of all days is about love....so here's hoping that today finds you showered with love, the love of Christ and the love of those around you.
Until next time.
