Have you ever wondered what the source of the suffering is?
The suffering we experience is mental and emotional in nature.
Memories cause us this mental and emotional pain. We experience this pain every time we remember a painful event and those it involved.Pain is something only a conscious person can experience; this is why surgeries are performed on un-conscious patients. Pain is received by centers within our brain, so when the brain is asleep the signals being sent by the area being operated on do not cause the physical reflexes normal whenever the brain is fully awake. LONG after an event has past, our conscious memories of the person and pain experienced still sting. Every memory of that individual and that experience will still hurt; sensitivity remains. As long as we remember - we will suffer.
Love suffers long - because love is willing to keep the memory of the person awake! There are ways men have developed to deaden pain and induce a state of unconsciousness and we are tempted to do this in order to suppress our own painful memories.
Love is willing to suffer long and keep the memory of the person conscious. Many believers have succumbed to the temptation to put the memory of their painful experiences out of their mind.However, to put a painful experience out of your mind, you must also put the persons involved out of your mind.This is why so many relationships are not reconciled in the church and so many divisions exist where friendships once flourished. Too many have chosen personal comfort through suppression of painful memories rather than to suffer long by a conscious choice to remember by love. We are commanded to love one another like Jesus has loved us.
Jesus loves us by forgiving our sins and not holding our sinful actions against us. He does not put us out of His mind; instead, He ever lives to make intercession for us. Is this the way we love others? Do we keep their memory alive through intercessory prayer? Do we choose to suffer long for those who have hurt us by keeping them fresh in our mind so that we can bless them and pray for them, even doing good to them as we have opportunity.
May the Lord cause us to realize the scheme of the enemy that would cause us to seek selfish relief from mental and emotional pain through putting others who have wronged us out of our mind? Instead, may we love others like Jesus loves us, continually making intercession for those we choose to keep fresh in our minds. Love suffers long. Love does not suppress the memory of the pain, but bears the sensitive memory and endures the mental and emotional pain - love never fails to continue to pray, to bless, or to do good.
Love chooses to SUFFER - LONG!
Written by Alan a while back. A good reminder of what true love is when we are abiding in Christ.
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