Are You a Noise Maker?

Clanging symbols resonate with me as they echo, and continue a notable sound after being clapped once. This same visual Apostle Paul uses when writing his letter to the Corinthians.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal (1 Cor. 13:1). Paul wanted them to understand the fullness of being a follower of Jesus Christ.

Love has to be at the root of everything we do.

Are your efforts merely distractions; do you serve as noise that provides no healing for the battered, or the wounded?

Are your efforts resounding: self, self, and more self? Are you serving to make yourself feel better, or for the greater purpose of love?

Ministries crumble for disregarding this basic principle, to love always. Nothing matters if we cannot love others even in the midst of their sin. The stench may be from committing adultery, sleeping around, underpaying employees while taking glamorous vacations, backbiting, theft, addiction, or selling illegal drugs.

The foundation of being a believer of Jesus Christ will always be love.

I know it hurts to forgive the drunk driver that took your family member’s life, but you must. I know it pains you to love someone that maliciously took your virginity, something so sacred, but hear me out, God says you must forgive.

He says, be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you (Eph. 4:32).

When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her (John 8:7).”

This woman had been caught in the act of committing adultery, and their fleshly response was to sacrifice the sinner. Jesus could have responded in flesh and condemned them for their hypocritical behavior, but instead used this as a teaching moment.

Where do you need to offer compassion? Is it your sibling that you have yet to forgive? Has your heart hardened towards someone God would have compassion for? Do you have a stone in your hand, ready to aim and throw?

Can I tell you something...your ministry is null and void if you cannot pass the test of loving someone that has wronged you.

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing (1 Cor. 13:2-3).

Imagine being in that circle of accusers, you being one of them, holding up a stone ready to launch it forward onto the adulterous woman.

You hear the words of Jesus, and instead of you walking away you stand there still ready to aim. This is how some of us look in our spirits; we take the posture of a condemning sinner, full of pride, and great rhetoric.

Even after hearing the words of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we are still negligent of our own sin, ready to cast our stones onto others.

Today let’s take time to write a list of people we need to forgive, or of people we need to extend grace to. Is there someone you can’t stop gossiping about?

Ask Jesus to give you a heart for them, and instead of talking about them, pray for them.

Let’s pray together,

Lord forgive me for not freely extending forgiveness

Show me how to show love to those that have wronged me

Show me how to show love to those that have wronged the people I love

Show me how to show love to those that have wronged innocent people

Please give me a heart for people that don’t believe the way I do

Please give me a heart for those that have committed sins of:

murder, theft, addiction, lust, molestation, rape, racism, fascism, adultery,

selling of illegal drugs, domestic violence, genocide, sexual abuse, abortion (used as a method of birth control), lying, cheating, manipulation, idolatry, covetousness, jealousy, false testimony, and any other sin I have not mentioned.

All of this equals the same in your eyes.

Forgive me for throwing stones, that should’ve been aimed at me

Lead me to the way everlasting

Work on my heart Lord, for I cannot do this without your help

In the wonderful name of Jesus Christ, who is mighty to save, and quick to forgive

I pray today, to be more like you, Amen.