We need to keep our thoughts on Christ. (2) He will keep in perfect peace those whose mind is on Christ because they trust in Him. (3) We must take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. (4)
Our desire is to trust in the Lord always and not to be wise in our own eyes.(5) We must not be led astray from our sincere and pure devotion to Christ.(6)
We need to keep ourselves from sin. We must flee from sin. If tempted, we must call on Christ, and resist the enemy.(7) We must seek Him for strength to overcome temptation. We must call on Christ in our time of need. It is a matter of us denying ourselves daily.
Our enemy, the devil, will always try and trip us up and make us stumble. We must be alert for him. (8) We must not give the devil a foothold in our lives.(9) Even as Jesus was tempted by the devil with the kingdoms of this world and their splendour, so we must resist seeking the materialistic, worldly pleasures of this present world.
We need to confess our sins quickly to God remembering that the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin. (10) If we have offended or wronged others, and if the Holy Spirit leads us, we need to confess our sins to them and so pray for each other so that we may be healed.(11)
We need to be humble and eager to serve.(12) Christ came to serve and not to be served. A servant’s heart is a visible manifestation of Christ likeness and without which God cannot use any person.
We need to learn to forgive quickly, totally and freely. If we do not forgive men their sins, our Father will not forgive our sins.(13) As Father forgets our sins (14) so should we forget the sins of others.(15) As Christ gains the ascendancy in our life, Christ’s nature, character and ways gain the ascendancy in our own lives. If the accuser of the brethren were to come to Christ and point a finger at a believer or anyone else for confessed sin (16), Christ would say, “I have NO remembrance of it!”
We should always seek to be Christ like! The harder it is for you to forgive, the further you are from the true love from Christ. Seek Jesus Christ always if you find forgiving difficult! It is only achieved in Christ’s strength and by the Holy Spirit.
Remember that forgiveness is the restoration of a relationship by the one hurt or wronged! Just as Almighty God restores your relationship to Him through forgiveness so you need to restore the relationship to the one forgiven!
Love is the family likeness for God is love. We are to love one another deeply.(17) Love covers a multitude of sins.(18) Love keeps no record of wrongs.(19) Mercy triumphs over judgment (20).
(1) Hebrews 12:2 Matthew 28:18 (2) Hebrews 3:1 (3) Isaiah 26:3 (4) 2 Corinthians 10:5 (5) Proverbs 3:5-7 (6) 2 Corinthians 11;3 (7) James 4:7 (8) 1 Peter 5:8,9 (9) Ephesians 4:27 (10) 1 John 1:7-9 (11) James 5:16 (12) Isaiah 66:2; Micah 6:8; Philippians 2:5-8; 1 Peter 5:2,6; James 4:6 (13) Matthew 6:12,14,15 (14) Hebrews 8:12; 10:17; Isaiah 43:25; Jeremiah 31:34 (15) Isaiah 43: 18,25; Philippians 3;13 etc (16) Revelation 12:10; 1 John 1:9 (17) 1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 3:16; 4:12, 19-21 (18) Proverbs 10:12 (19) 1 Corinthians 13:5 (20) James 2:13
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