Topic - How To Love
This is the second week of the Curiosity Corner Club. Welcome friends!
I could call this the Adjustment Club because my goal is to adjust our minds. I don't know about you, but I work at Forgiveness, the topic of our first Curiosity Corner Club meeting. I like confessing once a week to God because I feel clean afterward. I also do it because He is my friend. It is good to unburden yourself to someone who loves you unconditionally. It lightens your Spirit.
But what comes after Forgiveness?
Leviticus 19:18 - "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord."
Matthew 22:39 (The second commandment, the first commandment being to love God with all of your heart, soul, and mind.) "And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
The Bible is a guidebook if you ask God to enlighten you as you read and meditate—his Spirit dwells in those pages and words. You need only open yourself to hear Him.
We should love God, love everyone, including ourselves and our neighbors, and forgive everyone. That is part of love. This is our challenge this week!
I once had a great grudge against a woman I did not like. The Holy Spirit revealed two things I could do to renew my mind and stop hating her: hatred fills our minds with poison and blocks good thoughts that will bless us throughout our lives.
1. I started praying for her and blessing her.
What followed was a vision of the two of us at a long table in Heaven. There was a celebration. She turned to me and looked at me, and I said, there you are, and I went to sit with her. I was astonished that in Heaven, we were friends. From that moment forward, I bore no grudge, anger, or hatred for this woman for how she had treated me. Clearly, God touched me.
2. I pictured her differently. I began seeing people as they were in Heaven, with great joy and smiles. I realized I had been dealing with her "earth" personality. (I will explain this in this week's blog.) I began to have flashes of people as they were in Heaven, and I started to see others as God did. I was renewing my mind!
This week at the Corner Curiosity Club, pick one of the people in your life that you need to forgive and start praying for them.
Say, "I bless ________," throughout your day. It's said that you can't hate and pray for someone simultaneously, and I have found this to be true.
Imagine this person with joy on their face, void of the pain, anger, cruelty, sorrow, whatever they carry in this lifetime.
If you can slowly work your way down the list of people to forgive from last week, you are doing something much more valuable to God than gold. It fulfills his second commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Remember, you may have to say, "Father, I forgive ___________. They owe me nothing. I am only your servant."
You say it how it feels right to you. I'm not here to give you formulas.
And then follow it up with a blessing and an imagined picture (or you may see their heavenly selves in a quick vision).
"I bless _______ with love, joy, peace, happiness, wealth, health, and a divine destiny."
This is my blessing. Yours may be different.
Notes from club meetings:
1. Create a list of people to forgive.
2. Begin to love those you have forgiven.
Forgiving and loving is a lifestyle, not a one-time effort.
Let's Begin!
Your friend, Denise