Sometimes living every day with Jesus means doing the hard things. Christ did them, and He expects us to do them. But He doesn’t ask us to do them in our own strength. Instead, He empowers us with his Holy Spirit.
One of the things I do to live every day with Jesus is to pray each morning and read my Bible and a devotional book like Streams in the Desert or A Year With C.S. Lewis. These things edify my spirit and help me to have a more Godly attitude as I interact with others. Without this morning anchoring of my soul to the eternal God, my ability to show kindness and the love of Christ is greatly diminished.
Praying in the spirit with groanings which cannot be uttered infuses my being with fresh, holy energy. Reading the quick and powerful words of God lobs off the excess weights of bitterness or agitation that try to choke my psyche. Once my spirit is energized and free of cloudy, carnal thinking, I can drink wise words of wisdom from such spiritual giants as C.S. Lewis.
I wanted to share C.S. Lewis’ thoughts on forgiveness with you today because it is an area that I often have to revisit and refocus on. So below is his humorous post as it were. I hope you enjoy it and take something away from it that will help you live everyday with Jesus with joy.
THIS TERRIBLE DUTY by C.S. Lewis
[One of the most unpopular of the Christian virtues] is laid down in the Christian rule, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ Because in Christian morals ‘thy neighbor’ includes ‘thy enemy’, and so we come up against this terrible duty of forgiving our enemies.Every one says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive, as we had during the war. And then, to mention the subject at all is to be greeted with howls of anger. It is not that people think this too high and difficult a virtue: it is that they think it hateful and contemptible. “That sort of talk makes them sick’, they say. And half of you already want to ask me, “I wonder how you’d feel about forgiving the Gestapo if you were a Pole or a Jew?’
So do I. I wonder very much. Just as when Christianity tells me that I must not deny my religion even to save myself from death by torture, I wonder very much what I should do when it came to the point. I am not trying to tell you in this book what I could do – I can do precious little – I am telling you what Christianity is. I did not invent it. And there, right in the middle of it, I find ‘Forgive us our sins as we forgive those that sin against us.’ there is no slightest suggestion that we are offered forgiveness on any other terms.
-From Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis