Episode 561

TODAY’S READING
13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
Colossians 3:13

If you have a grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord forgave you, and I labeled today’s evil; please bear with me. What I like about this verse is that it reminds us that we can sometimes come into a season where we may have a grievance against someone. And that means that we may have moments in which we clash. Maybe because we are on separate seasons altogether. And we’re just not seeing eye to eye with one another. Maybe one’s in a season of celebrating a while, the other is in a season of grieving, and so naturally, some friction may occur, or some grievance may happen, and I just wanted to label it a sequel; please bear with me because that statement is so true.

Please take with each other and forgive one another. Bear with the other person as they are walking through a season of grieving, or bear with your friend while she continues to celebrate the same celebration over and over again. Or bear with your friend as she is excited to celebrate her heights. She’s been waiting for this moment all her life, and it’s here and so bear with her while she takes a moment to bask in the presence of celebration. Maybe to you, oh my gosh, it’s another event we have to go to. It’s another $50 that we need to spend on dinner, but to her, it’s the world’s because she’s been waiting for this moment and maybe for your other friend who’s walking through a season of grieving bear with her tears. I know it’s another break that you have to sit through and listen. And maybe you’ve asked or told her a million things that you know if she were just to take your advice, things would be better but bear with her. She walks through the season because she’s the one who’s carrying the weight of the pain. And yes, we can point all of our friends to Jesus, but Jesus also asked us to be our friends like he and to forgive our friends and family to forgive others as He forgives us. So if you have any grievances, I ask that you forgive them.

If you have any resentment while your friends are celebrating or while your friends are leaving. I asked that you look at your heart and let you ask the Lord to soften it. We are all in different seasons. But that does not mean that we cannot be friends while we’re in different seasons. It just means we must learn to celebrate our friends in their moment. And also to allow them the space to cry it out if that’s the season they’re
in. Long story short, we’re thankful for the relationships the Lord has brought us and that we are committed to continuing to nurture those.

Prayer:
Father God, we thank You, Lord, we thank you for this beautiful Monday, and we thank you for the circles of influence that you have brought us to; we thank you for our friends and our family, our sisters and our brothers and we look at each other, and we see how we’re all in different seasons. Some of us are building careers, building families, others of us are watching our families or our daughters build theirs, and so Lord, we are all over the place. Some of us are grieving, others of us are celebrating, and some of us are doing the same thing in each other’s lives. And so I ask that you soften any heart that has any resentment towards a friend, whether they are grieving and you are over their tears or vice versa. We ask that you soften our hearts when it comes down to someone who may be over-excited for an event and you just don’t understand why we’re still celebrating, Lord. It is a celebration you ask us to do so. So soften our hearts Lord, if we have any grievance towards each other, man, we forgive each other. We thank you for the opportunity just to live with you at the center. We’d love you. We ask that you bless this Monday, and it is in your son’s mighty name that we pray. Amen.