Power Of Covering

Power of Covering

Key Scripture: “Above all things, have fervent love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.” I Peter 4:8

Power Point:

     It’s hard to remember sometimes that the MOST important thing to us is NOT the most important thing to God isn’t it? Usually when we have a relationship “issue”, we tend to talk about it don’t we? We want to be justified in our resentment. We want support for our right to be offended. I don’t know about you but I have spent many long hours telling God how wrong the other person is. Over the years I’ve come to realize that above ALL things He’s most concerned with my ability to be fervent in my love for them.  Yes, even them.  Especially them.

      In Isaiah 58 there’s this troubling passage that says, “ if we take away the yoke from our midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if we extend ourselves to those around us, OUR lights will shine in the darkness as bright as noonday. That’s a sticky issue sometimes isn’t it? We just have to say that word that “uncovers” someone else, don’t we? Speaking wickedness refers to stirring up trouble. The truth is, talking negatively about someone else probably stirs up more trouble for me than it does for them. It dims my light and weighs me down with negative thoughts that God never intended me to have, because when I have them, I can’t move in the wholeness He intended for me, and I place a yoke on the person I’ve shared with.

I march myself right out of being blessed.

    The word for “cover” is “to hide”. It means to cover something up that shouldn’t be seen. As Christians we are to cover up those things that should not be seen or heard. We are to honor everyone. Honoring means that we don’t dwell on the negatives in other people. We don’t expound on their mistakes, we wrap them in grace. We cover them, in the sense that even though we don’t agree with something they are doing, we still honor the person God is in love with.  We refuse to speak evil of them.

     The Scripture says that most important thing is that we are to be fervent in our love for one another. In the Greek, that means that we stretch ourselves out to the full extent of the measure of His love in us. My son’s cleaning lady makes a very tight bed. She stretches the sheets and blankets so tightly that you cannot see one lump underneath those covers.  In fact, sometimes it’s hard to “uncover” the bed so that I can get in it! 

     That’s how tightly we are to stretch ourselves out for others. We are to be as fervent in expressing His grace, mercy and love as He is.

     If we don’t do that, a little bit of His light in us is dimmed. Jesus said, ”Love one another.” In fact, He modeled love as a lifestyle. I’m pretty sure He did NOT sit around the campfire with His disciples and talk about other people and their shortcomings.  He didn’t spend His nights in prayer complaining about the people that annoyed Him. We have the same Spirit in us that enabled Him to do that Beloved. He is the Light of the World and He’s filled us with the same Light for the world.

God is love, and in Him there is no darkness. He’s gone to great extremes to offer His children the Light of His love. So should we, don’t you think?

Power Thought:

Remember this Beloved, that person is not your enemy, The Enemy is your enemy. And You have the Light of the world on your side.