Roping Religion: Remember patience, love and kindness

Many of the ideas and scriptures for this article are from the devotional “God Wants You to Win!” by world champion calf roper Jeff Copenhaver.

God has determined the exact place where you and I live. He has put inside each of us a God-sized hole in our hearts that only He can fill. He knows how we are made because He knit us together in our mothers’ wombs. He gave us gifts and abilities to serve Him and others. We are not to hide our light under a bushel basket but we are to let our light shine. Perhaps the world will be attracted to Jesus as we live to bring glory to God.

He will give us the desires of our hearts as we delight ourselves in Him. Hopefully we will see Him change our desires as we seek after Him so that we can honestly say, “Not my will but Thine be done.”

As we travel through life we may be misunderstood or have bad things said about us. Sometimes the rumors might even be true. There was a saying on a sugar packet in a restaurant that said “don’t explain — your friends don’t need it and your enemies won’t believe it anyway.”

One of the themes in the Bible is forgiveness. God has forgiven us so much. We ask Him to forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others. It seems extremely important to me that we forgive others. That does not make what they did, said, or didn’t do okay. It just keeps our hearts clean before the Lord. Reconciliation and restoration can be a long and perhaps painful process for those who have been sinned against.

Rather than think of the times we have been cheated, lied to, lied about, or any number of other offenses we should think about things that are honest, just, pure and lovely. Instead of thinking about what negative people think or say we should embrace the forgiveness and love of God and then move forward with our eyes fixed on Jesus — the author and finisher of our faith. The devil is the accuser of the brethren. We are taught to agree with our adversary quickly. If there is some truth in the accusations against us we should just agree with that part and then remind the enemy of our souls that Jesus already paid full price for our sins. We are forgiven. We overcome the devil by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony. The gospel is good news for mankind.

One of the issues we may continue to struggle with is our tongue. We are not supposed to be foul-mouthed or gossipers. We are supposed to speak out what is good and beneficial. That can be a real challenge when we are tempted to defend ourselves when we’ve been hurt or accused of something. Walking this out is especially important in the marriage relationship.

Jeff Copenhaver encourages us to never use the word divorce and to be big enough to say, “I’m sorry.” We need to remember the commitments we made to our spouse. He also encourages us to pay our tithes as a couple as this will bring blessings to our finances. As men we are to treat our wives like a precious jewel and women should treat their husbands as champions and they will live up to it.

Other good marriage tips include “When you have a fight, you don’t have to be right.” As men we need to quit trying to explain. As a couple we need to recognize that we are a power team for God. Each spouse should have eyes for their mate only and discuss significant financial spending beforehand. We should communicate kindly and work on overcoming life’s challenges with love and laughter. We are in a covenant in the marriage relationship which means my spouse’s welfare at my expense. After you’ve had the fight and worked through the issue then don’t bring up the past. Remember that love is patient and kind. It is not jealous or boastful.

May God Bless You Big.

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This is the third in a series of columns by Kevin Barsotti, pastor of Ark Church in Havre.