What caused one person to be hateful, and another to be loving? What causes one person to be “balanced” and another to be “unstable.” Some psychologists will try to tell you it’s all due to upbringing, or lack of self esteem caused by an incident (or incidents) during childhood. I’ve even heard it said that most problems in a person’s life can be traced back to whether or not they were breast fed! I guess there’s no real agreement on any of this, and I’m surely not going to solve such deep problems here. Still, there is a lot written in Scripture about the motives and motivations of fallen man. My thesis is that most of these situations are caused by love, or in some cases a lack of it. Maybe some of it is caused by the love that is or is not shown to a person by those around him or her (especially by close family members), but also because of the love that the individual either shows or withholds from those around them. Another question? What causes one person to repent their sins and accept forgiveness while another will perpetually deny they’ve ever wronged a anyone? The answer? Love again! But this time not for those around you, but for God Almighty. That’s right, it’s our love for God (or lack of it) that causes us to be healed…. or to be imprisoned by our own prideful arrogance. All sin is against God–but a person first has to acknowledge that there is a God before they can ever understand the simple truth of His unending forgiveness.
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. AGAINST YOU, YOU ONLY, HAVE I SINNED and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.” Psalm 51:1-4 (Emphasis mine)
In Christ,
PastorJimKilby @Kilbin8er
Jim@JamesKilby.com