Be Fruitful and Multiply 2
Channel: Theophilus Lambo
Date: 2017-02-08

When a Reverend in a church was asked by a young student who was conducting a research work on “forgiveness”, she wanted to find out what the scripture says about “a state of forgiveness”. The Reverend thought for a while since the question went something like “Reverend what are some of your feelings, when you forgive someone?” One of her first thoughts was that she has to have the feeling of hope in order to forgive instead of retaliate.
“In my life, the way I see it—and I think it is the intended biblical pattern—hope is like a reservoir of emotional strength. What do we understand by reservoir; from my phone Google search, it is a storage space for fluids like water, hydrocarbons or gas as well as emotional strength.
 Then the Reverend continued, if I am put down and disgraced for no just reason, I look to the emotional reservoir of hope for the strength to return good for evil. Without hope I have no power to absorb the wrong and walk in love, and I sink into self-pity or self-justification. If I experience a setback in my planning and budgeting—I get downcast and unhappy, or things don't go the way I'd hoped in any meeting among my Christian brethren, for example—I look to the emotional reservoir of hope for the strength to keep me going and not give up.
If I face a temptation to be dishonest, to steal, to lie, or to lust, I look to the emotional reservoir of hope for the strength to hold fast to the way of righteousness, and deny myself some brief, unsatisfying pleasure.
 That is the way it works for me. That is the way I fight for holiness in the Christian life, the Reverend responded”. 
And I believe this is the biblical way to make our calling and election sure.