Restoring Love

Ephesians 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:


When I was a younger man, there were many things that I held onto in my heart that happened to me in my childhood.  I was angry about those things and rather than dealing with them, I stored them deep inside.  Perhaps it was because at the time I did not know how to deal with them, or I did not want to; maybe a bit of both.  Whatever it was, those hurts that went unresolved that I was mad about began to work on me. 


As time went on, I began to use that anger and those earlier events as an excuse.  They were things I would use to explain away my failures and shortcomings and lay the blame upon someone else rather than upon myself.  I became bitter towards those who I felt had wronged me; family, former friends, crowds, women...  whoever.
 

This bitterness took root in me.  I couldn't trust people.  They would only hurt me in the end; make fun of me, hurt me, reject me.  I isolated myself so that I couldn't be hurt.  This was only self perpetuating though.  You can't form good relationships with others if you don't trust.  It would only lead to more hurt and more blame; more hardness in the heart.
 

Over the years, I had become estranged from family, had few friends, and became somewhat of a hermit.  This continued even though I had accepted Jesus Christ into my heart.  There were other issues that the Lord had decided to deal with first.  I guess like an onion, He had to peel away the layers to reveal the next one.  While it is true that His word is sharper than a two edged sword, He uses it with skill and precision like a scalpel in the hands of a surgeon. 


While long ago I had dealt with some of those bitterness issues and let go of most of those burdens I carried, there were still things unresolved.  God just does not cut away the bad stuff, but He also heals and restores the good things.  He just does not take away the pain and leave an empty dwelling, but wants it filled with His love.


Over recent times, the Lord has reminded me what it is like to have friends.  He has slowly returned me to my family.  It's been a blessing that I really find difficult to describe.  It's been over 30 years since I have seen some of my family.  All those years I let be robbed because I let the sun go down on my anger, it grew into bitterness, showed forth as wrath, and led to malice.  I guess it takes time to root that stuff out?


It makes me think of another important aspect... fellowship with the spiritual family.  We are told not to forsake the gathering, but when you get angry and hold it in, you begin to set the stage for that fellowship to be cut off.  Not only with other believers, but with the creator himself we can find ourselves distanced from.  How can we hear our heavenly father when we have ought against our brother?  How can we be blessed when we can't bless?  While I certainly don't feel totally estranged from Yahweh, we could be closer, and in this restorative process I think that closer is what He wants.
 

It's a good thing to find out that you are loved.  It is especially sweet when you have not felt all that loved.  When rejection turns to reception we can rejoice on the reclamation.  Would you like to feel that restoration?  Would you like to feel the love that you have never felt or that has been put so far away from you that you can scarcely remember how it feels?


God so loved you that He came down here to earth in the form of a man, lived the perfect life that we are incapable of, and sacrificed it so that we may take His place in righteousness.  No greater love has someone than this, that he lay down his life for you.  That is what Jesus has done.  Accept His sacrificial offering and believe that Jesus is Lord.  Believe that he rose again on the third day.  Believe that He has ascended to be on the right hand of the father making intercession for us always.  He is making those intercessions for us so that we might have restored what sin has taken away, the devil has stolen away, and what we have given away.  Begin reading His word and applying it in your life, and let Him work in replacing anger and restoring love.