arunangelo

Most people know that there is a God. However, He is abstract to them; because, they do not know what He looks like, and have never seen Him, felt Him or heard Him. Many believe that He is a spirit. However, they are not even sure what a spirit is. Fortunately, it is not difficult to find Him, because, He reaches out to us and is knocking on every human heart, begging us to allow Him to enter our heart, and bring us peace and joy. God is Spirit and Love. His Spirit fills the Universe. Spirit is like a force or energy, which we cannot see; but feels its effect. While force and energy affects only material objects spirit, also affect thoughts and minds. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of love that lead human minds and thoughts to acts of sacrificial love, and the energy that sustains human spirit to stay faithful to unconditional love during the most painful trials in life. It brings sublime and enduring love in human hearts. We often feel godless and do not hear God

God created us, so that we can share His life of unconditional love, and thereby find peace and joy. To love is a decision; it, therefore, needs a choice. Without a choice, we can not love. The choice is to love or not to love. The latter means, selfishness; which is the cause of all evil. Because, God is all knowing, He knew that some people will choose evil. However, in order that we may be able to love, He had to give us a choice. If he had created us in such a fashion, that we would only choose love, then it would not really be a choice and we could never love. Obviously, evil hurts people and destroys life. Fortunately, our life on this earth is not the final story; it is only an infinitesimal part of our life where we finalize our choice. If we choose love, we will have peace and joy for all eternity; so that the hurt and suffering in this life would be nothing compared to the peace and joy for all eternity. Many a times, when we are hurt by others, we wants to choose hate and selfishness; however, Jesus, who is God in human form, showed us by His life as a human being, that, love and forgiveness are the only positive responses to hate. Furthermore, by rising from the dead he also showed us that, if we choose love, death has no power over us.

Here are few ideas about how to forgive. 1) Perfect forgiveness comes through Jesus, who compensated for the offenses we committed against Him by sacrificing His own life. In order to forgive, we must, therefore, surrender our will to God by desiring nothing except to do and accept His will. 2) Sacrifice our hurt and pride, just as Jesus humbled Himself and sacrificed His life for us, in order to bring forgiveness and healing to those who offend us. 3) Constantly remember that we are sinners who are forgiven by the sacrificial body and blood of Christ. Please feel free to add some more.

I agree that only God brings redemption. Out acts of forgiveness are God's forgiveness acted through. To forgive, we have to surrender our will to God. God can forgive us instantaneously; we, however, take time to surrender our will to Him.

Here are some of the attributes of forgiveness that I was able to find. 1) To forgive is to compensate for the offenses of those who offend us by sacrificing our own life in order to bring healing and redemption to those who offend us. 2) Forgiveness has no limit. 3) If we do not forgive as Jesus did, we do not have love in our heart. 4) We accept God

To trust in Jesus, is to accept His life. His life is the life of unconditional love, which enabled Him to sacrifice His life for those who were unfaithful to Him and betrayed Him. If we don't accept this life, we do not have faith in Him. When we accept His life, He rewards us with the opportunities to live His life. This means that He gives us opportunity to unconditionally serve and forgive others (including those who are unfaithful to us). This further means that our trials and challenges in life are our rewards, because, through them we get close to Jesus (who underwent trials and suffering for our sin) and allow Him to purify our soul.

To have peace in our heart we must at all times seek to do the will of God; which is to be selfless (desire nothing for our self) and to serve others unconditionally. We must also unconditionally forgive others and help those who hurt us. This means that we must be like Jesus. Though it is impossible to follow Jesus on our own, He can do it for us, if we humbly open our heart to His graces by full heartedly desiring to follow Him. We can keep this desire alive in our heart by remembering His love for us in all our thoughts, words and actions.

God is love. Jesus is love incarnate. He surrendered His life and sacrificed it inorder to bring forgivness for our sins. He is selfless. Therefore, during His passion, He was concerned about about our salvation and not about His own suffering. He served those around Him by healing the sick, comforting the afflicted, freeing us from sins and teaching us the truth. Love, therefore, surrenders and sacrifices self, to unconditionally serve and forgive others.

Should not we be faithful in our marriage, even if our spouse is not? God always stays faithful to His covenant with us. When we were unfaithful to Him, He brought us healing by sacrificing His own life. The Lord told Hosea (Hosea 3:1), to return to his wife although she was an adulteress. God further told him to love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they were unfaithful to Him.

Those who practice true love never seek reward for acts of love for the following reasons. 1) The privilege to love and serve others itself is the greatest reward, because, this give them a share in God

To love is to sacrifice self in order to unconditionally help others. Love for God, therefore, is not a feeling; rather, it is to dedicate our life to God by entering His life and forming oneness with Him. Since God is love, to love God, is to makes love the desire of our whole being. Similarly, to worship God is to offer our entire life as a sacrifice to Him. As sinners we are incapable of making this sacrificial offering. However, Jesus, who is pure and sinless, made a perfect sacrifice of His life to the Father on our behalf and allows us to join in His sacrifice by sharing His sacrificial body in the form of bread and His sacrificial blood of the new and eternal covenant in the form of wine (Matthew 26:26-28) with us. Furthermore, He asks us to offer this sacrifice, so that His presence in our heart is never lost (Luke 22:19) and we may thereby have life (John 6:53). This fulfills what Malachi had prophesized (Malachi 1:11):

To forgive is to sacrifice what is taken away from us in order to help those who hurt us. For example if someone insults us we feel that our pride is taken away. To forgive in such a situation is to sacrifice our pride in order to bring healing to the person who insults us. Sinners are people who disobey God and go against Him. Yet Jesus came into this world to bring healing to sinners (Luke 5:32). He forgave His executioners (Luke 23:34) and sacrificed His life so that they may have eternal life. He did this, because, His loved them unconditionally. He, therefore, was not concerned about Himself; rather, He was concerned about their eternal life. Forgiveness, therefore, is an act of unconditional love. Jesus, therefore, tells us to,

We must be merciful, just as our Father is merciful (Luke. 6:36), because, He is our God. If we truly are followers of Christ, we too will forgive as He does (Eph 4:32). He forgave by sacrificing His life for those who betrayed Him, were unfaithful to Him and killed Him.

Forgive as the Lord forgave you (Col.3: 13). When we were unfaithful to Him, He forgave us. When we deserted Him, He forgave us. When we abused Him and killed Him, He forgave us. He forgave us by healing us. He healed us by sacrificing His own life. With God's help we can forgive as He does.

God compensated for our sins that we committed against Him by sacrificing His own life. In other words, the victim compensated for the sins of His offenders. This is a very important fact, because, this is true forgiveness. If we have to accept His forgiveness, we must believe in it by doing like wise. In other words, we must not only write-off what our offenders owe us, but also put our lives on the line in the process of helping them to recover from their sinful ways. If we do not forgive others in this manner, we will not receive forgiveness (Matt 18:21-34).

Jesus tells us that to be first, we should be last and the servant of all(Mark 9:35). Paul tells us

We are created in the image of God (who is love) (Gen. 1:27) and are a product of God

Christianity has to do with redemption and redemption has to do with forgiveness. The whole redemption history revolves around God

When we were unfaithful to Him, and deserted Him, God did not break His covenant of love with us. When we sinned against Him, abused and killed Him, He did not take revenge; on the contrary, He sacrificed His life for us, so that our sins against Him would be forgiven and we may have eternal life. Are we true followers of Jesus, if our forgiveness is not similar to that of God

To be born again is to be born spiritually in the Spirit (of Christ) (John 3:6). In other words, to be born again, is to receive the Spirit of Christ in our heart (2 Cor. 5: 17) through baptism. We accept this life by living the life of Christ. Christ

God is Spirit and Love (John 4:24 & 1John 4, 8). Love therefore, is not a feeling or emotion, but a being that is God. The Spirit of God is like force or energy, which we cannot see; yet they control every aspect of our life and the universe; and are critical for our survival. His Spirit however, is infinitely greater than just force or energy, because, He is intelligent, merciful, loving, forgiving and life giving. In fact He is the creator of force and energy. His Spirit is Love, which speaks to every human heart, constantly persuading us to be selfless and righteous. His Spirit moves human heart to great holiness. His Spirit is also the force that leads human beings to charity, mercy, forgiveness and hope; and the energy that sustains us during our trials, tribulations and works. We experience God, when we experience the spirit of love in human beings and in our own heart; we see God when we see acts of unconditional love in the world; we touch God when we selflessly reach out to others in love; and we communicate with God when our thoughts are fixed on love and forgiveness. We see fullness of God in Jesus. Although we were unfaithful to Him and betrayed, abused and killed Him He did not back out from the covenant of love He made to us. On the contrary, He humbled Himself to take a human form and sacrificed in life in order to compensate for the sins we committed against Him. Those who have truly accepted Jesus in to their life, likewise, are forgiving people who have dedicated their lives to serve others, and do not back out from their covenant of love with their spouse and commitment to others in the face of unfaithfulness, betrayal, abuse or hurt. Their acceptance of Jesus sets them free from hate, greed, lust, anger, revenge and jealousy.

Emptiness of heart results from selfishness. Selfishness results from a sense of insecurity; and a sense of insecurity results from lack of faith in God

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God (John 1:1). The Word became (physical) flesh and made his dwelling amongst us (as Jesus) (John1: 14). He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the World (John 1:29). He is the new Pascal Lamb whose sacrificial (physical) flesh and (physical) blood brings us forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:27-28), and seals God

Thanks for the reply. This is exactly, what I think he needs to do.

I do I help an adult, who has ignored his family and his prayer life, because, of video games?