How To… VI

“Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others” Col.3:13 [emphasis added].

Everybody has a fault. We are all faulty. When we get to heaven we will be perfect. The Bible did not say be faultless with one another. The Bible did not say do not offend one another. You will get offended but the Bible says make allowance. If I know this person is talkative, I am not saying the person is a gossip, I am saying talkative – two different things. If the talkative person comes to talk me, maybe my emotions are to shut the person up but making allowance for the person would mean I would just give myself some room. Let me explain what I mean. There are some people that my meetings with them just lasts for ten minutes because they go straight to the point and we pray and believe God has sorted it out. For some other people I need to give them forty-five minutes to say the same thing another person said in ten minutes. So I make allowance for them because that is how they are. God is not saying change each other, God is saying make allowance for each other. For some people, God is helping them with anger. They get angry easily, make allowance for them. They are not perfect, they are in the process [work in progress], make allowance. When we make allowance for each other love becomes effortless.

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.  And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father” Col.3:16-17 [emphasis added]. Paul seems to round it all up with thanksgiving. As part of our church [God’s Favourite House] culture, we deliberately set aside one Sunday in every month to say ‘thank You’ to God. We should thank God everyday and by God’s grace we do. But in addition we have a culture of thanksgiving every month to remind us of God’s faithfulness, kindness and benevolence to us. The singing and dancing that we do are in the Bible also. God wants us to sing and dance. He wants us to be grateful. You can also create a culture of thanksgiving in your life and your home that is if it does not exist already. Set aside a day or days dedicated to giving thanks to God that the whole family is aware of. Days when you all just come together to dance and sing before God because it is pleasing to Him. Thank Him from your heart and verbalize it.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, please help me to consciously make allowances for people and deliberately create a culture of thanksgiving in my life and home, in Jesus Name.