"if your brother is grieved...you are no longer walking in love"

I tend to concern myself with my immediate family, I prefer to spend and be spent for them, and I don't mind if the Lord uses them to teach me lessons...

The Lord had a "dilemma"! I am in myself and apart from His work of grace so utterly selfish. I allow no one to get to me and I have a tendency to surround myself with indifference as with a cloak. The Lord loves me and He continues to pursue me. He needs varied instruments to use in my life to accomplish His purposes...so...

Yesterday the Lord posed a question to me: "If your brother Daniel was alive, would you tolerate his personality/behavior idiosyncrasies ?" I realized that I would, that I would want to walk in love and I would not want to grieve him. Then the Lord said: "Go and do that for Florin!"

I have had issues with Florin...only because I don't like his "secret ways" and the way he "hides" things from me...but I didn't realize that I grieved the Lord with my attitude.

"Who are you to judge...? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand for God is able to make him stand." (Romans 14)

I was also confronted with the verse in Isaiah 58:7d

"...not hide yourself from your own flesh" was brought to mind...for I had dismissed Florin's concerns from my mind and soul...since he appeared to me aloof and self sufficient. Nehemiah 5 also deals with a similar calloused attitude on the part of some brothers toward others...

"Holiness unto the LORD" no doubt includes such incidents...relating to those outside our immediate families whom we grieve...though the Lord would have us walk in the 1 Cor. 13 kind of love toward them...

I realize now how wise the Potter has been! He never brings to the surface dross until I am ready to see it for what it is and not continue to make excuses in my mind for "not walking in love" toward those whom He placed in my path.

"Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."
(James 5:16)