Love, Acceptance, and Forgiveness

After lunch with my friend Katie, I pondered the similarities between her heart and the heart of Christ.

Katie left her husband, Shawn, twice during an 18-month period. He had anger issues. She needed to protect herself in case he became abusive. She went back to him the second time 10 days before our lunch.

Why didn’t she give up on her husband?

Katie loves Shawn. She desires to be with him. She wants to be adored by him.

She accepts him as he is. Katie hopes he will have a change of heart, honor her, and treat her with the love and devotion she deserves. She is willing to give him another chance.

Katie is also forgiving. No matter what Shawn has done, Katie’s heart is huge. She wants this relationship to work as if her life itself depended upon it.

Do you see the similarities? Let’s look at this once more substituting Jesus in for Katie and the word me in for Shawn.

Jesus loves me. He desires to be with me. He wants to be adored by me.

He accepts me as I am. He hopes I will have a change of heart, honor Him, and treat Him with the love and devotion He deserves. He is willing to give me another chance.

Jesus is also forgiving. No matter what I have done, Jesus’s heart is huge. He wants this relationship to work as if His life itself depended upon it.

And it did.

Because of His great love for us, He died. He rose from the dead to give us new life. Eternal life.

If we receive His gift of eternal life, He will accept us as we are and forgive us for all our sins. We first need to admit we are a sinner and believe He died and rose from the dead. We also must turn from our sinful ways and commit to follow Him.

“If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved” (Romans 10:9-10 NLT).

“Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away” (Acts 3:19 NLT).

My hope is that Shawn follows through on the anger management counseling he agreed to and their marriage is restored.