Feelings

THERE WAS A time when I thought I had to have warm, glowing, intimate feelings toward those who had hurt me in the past and continued to wound me severely...

I was frustrated on how to force those feelings. Upon further reflection, I realized this is not the teaching of Jesus or Paul. If I had feelings of affection, that person would no longer be an enemy but a friend. After careful reading, neither Jesus nor Paul tells me how to feel toward enemies, but how to treat people that have been hurtful.

THOUGHT: The Holy Spirit did not direct Paul to tell us how love feels, but how love behaves (Jerrie Barber).

KneEmail: "Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails" (1 Cor. 13:4-8).

Posted by Mike Benson at March 22, 2006 1:03 PM

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