A Larger Story of Love

I read in a sermon by Brian Bell this week that the word prayer is mentioned 371 times in the Bible, the word love is mentioned 714 times, but the word giving is mentioned 2,162 times. This was a surprise to me. If I had been asked what word was mentioned most I would have voted for the word love. I began to ponder this idea of giving. I meditated on it. It was like a piece of hard candy slowly dissolving until the sweetness permeated my being.

As I continued to think about the importance that God places on giving, I was reminded of a book that I read many years ago. The book wasn’t about giving though, it was about forgiving. The book was “Total Forgiveness” by R.T. Kendall. What stood out most to me when I read the book was the effect that forgiveness had on his life. He had been part of the Charismatic Movement but he said that nothing had brought him into a deeper experience of the Holy Spirit than forgiveness.

I looked up the word forgiveness in the Strong’s concordance and found charizomai, a verb meaning to show favor, to give freely. At the root of forgiveness is charis. In HELP Word-studies I found that this word is preeminently used of the Lord’s favor - freely extended to give Himself away to people (because He is “always leaning toward them.”)

As I continued to think about the connection between giving and forgiving I was drawn back in my memory to dark chapters in my own life where I questioned the possibility of ever being able to forgive. The hurtful things that had been done not only wounded me deeply, they had also exposed the hardness of my own heart and my inability to truly love. I felt trapped in anger and hatred.

When I looked into God’s word I was confronted with forgiveness. The thought of forgiveness humbled me. It brought me to my knees. I came to God in prayer and begged Him to give me the grace to love, the grace to lean towards forgiveness and not away from it. I gave up my perceived right to anger, bitterness, and hatred. On my knees I moved from responding in the flesh and chose by God’s grace to respond in His Spirit. It wasn’t instant, but over time I began to experience a healing of my broken heart. When I humbly entered into communion with God by forgiving I realize that I had become part of a larger story of love -- the story that begins with these words, “For God so loved the world that He gave...”