Don't Let the Past Cripple the Future — Keith Daniel

Can we bow for a moment of prayer, please? Can we always just bow our hearts before God now? Father in mercy on all of us, wash me in the blood of Jesus Christ. Should there have been the smallest reaction that was not utterly holy and Christ-like, the smallest thought, the smallest word that somehow in my baseness I overlooked, to confess to thee that needs cleansing, I come to thee with the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, that cleanses us, Christians, from all sin.

Come, therefore, in mercy on this base and weak and despised man, and rightfully so, and wash me in the blood and show mercy and grace, that I might be washed and cleansed and filled with the Holy Spirit.

And made meat for the Master's use. Come, therefore, Lord, and speak to the depth of every heart here tonight. Make this a sacred ground, a sacred moment, where God visits every heart. Come, for all of us long for our God to visit us.

Humble us by thy presence, for in thy presence no flesh shall glory. Shall we come, and we humble ourselves in the sight of God, that thou in thy mercy might lift us up. Visit our hearts, in Jesus the Christ's name, for his glory.

Amen. Thank you. In Matthew 1225, we read these words, Every kingdom, every kingdom divided against itself. Divided against itself. Is brought to desolation. It destroys itself. But God doesn't stop there.

A Divided Household Cannot Stand

He goes on. Christ says, and every city or house that is home, family divided against itself shall not stand, won't survive, being destroyed as a home, as a family. Now, of course, the context of this passage, beginning in Matthew 1222, concerns the Pharisees, who were accusing Christ of being sent by Satan and used by Satan, which was the sin against the Holy Ghost.

That's the context of these words. But the graphic illustration that Christ inserts here carries a terrible warning to all of us. The graphic illustration that Christ inserts in this passage carries a terrible warning to all of us.

Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. And every city or house that is home or family divided against itself shall not stand. It won't survive. It will be destroyed. It will come to a tragic end and see much sorrow and grief and tragedy.

Proverbs 15 verse 17, better is a dinner of herbs, that's vegetables, where love is, than a stalled ox. Oh, that's when you really have been treated. The fattered calf. But hatred, hatred therewith. Better to have dinner that isn't so wonderful and glorious limited, meanly, but where love is, God says.

Here in Proverbs 15 17, than it is to have wonderful meal, the best, the stalled ox, the fattered calf. But there's hatred at that table, in that home. That is staggering. Galatians 5 15, but if you, if you bite and devour one another, that's possible.

Take heed, be careful, God says, that ye be not consumed one of another. Galatians 5 15, this verse is tragic. But if one considers applying this verse to a home, then that home is truly tragic. If you bite and devour one another, take heed, be careful, that you be not consumed, that you don't destroy each other.

How Conflict Destroys Family Life

How can a home be destroyed? Well, it can be through the wife, where great division, hatred, hurt can be. I read this article in a newspaper recently. Would you listen to it carefully, please? Wife's arguing makes a Chinese man jump off the ship.

A Chinese lorry driver jumped into the great Yangtze River, because he couldn't take his wife's fighting anymore. So when his wife were on a ferry, the ship's crew saw the man suddenly run out of his cabin with his hands covering his ears, shouting.

But his wife ran up and just continued screaming at him and fighting. The crew members said the husband covered his ears, screaming, and eventually just jumped off the ship into the river, into this great treacherous river.

When the police finally found him, which they didn't think they would, he said these words, Dying would be better than living any longer with my wife. That's terrible. John Wesley wrote this article in his journals on June the 9th, 1742.

I rode into a town to witness the justice of peace, being confronted by angry mobs who had carried a whole wagon load of converts, newly converted, referred to as new heretics across England. When the justice of peace asked the crowd what these heretics had done, there was a deep silence over the accusers.

Eventually one said, they pretend to be better than others. They pray from morning till night. Well, the justice says, but have they done nothing else? There was quietness. Yes, sir, replied an old man.

They've converted my wife. Up till now, she has had a terrible tongue. Now she's as quiet as a lamb. Oh, then carry them back. Carry them back to the town. Let them convert all the skulls of the town.

That's wonderful. They were brought to be judged because they'd become religious. All the judge could say get them back if it stops your wives from becoming skulls. Well, that is according to a dictionary, a person is always angry, screaming, nagging, unsubmissive, and uses foul language.

Terrible. It could be that a house is divided and brought into a state of sorrow and tragedy and suffering and grief. Through the daughter-in-law. Not just the wife. Jerusalem is here, sitting with Roy.

Now, Jerusalem is our daughter-in-law. We visited her grandfather, Mr. Willard, when they were courting. And we had a lovely meal. Her grandfather said these words to me, I trust you will find in Jerusalem someone who does not complain or argue.

We brought her mother up. Her grandfather said, we brought her up without showing her any example of complaining, arguing, fighting, and she brought up her daughter, that is Jerusalem, the same way. We didn't teach her mother to be a moaner or a complainer or an arguer.

Then he said these words, Brother Keith, we trust that she will make some young missionary called Roy Daniel in Africa a good wife. Because on the mission field, the last thing a preacher needs is a wife who will fight and argue and complain and murmur.

She'll destroy him. Because so much on the mission field is a life of trials. We trust that she will be what we raised our daughter to be and our daughter has raised Jerusalem to be. It could be a daughter-in-law that comes into your son's life.

It could be a mother-in-law that destroys the home, destroys the happiness. Could be, I want to read to you another article that I read in the recent newspaper, a web sensation, a British woman emailed to her daughter-in-law her future daughter-in-law has become an international sensation on the internet.

She attacked her daughter-in-law on the email of being guilty of lacking manners. And she said that this daughter-in-law of hers should stop staying in bed late, as she did when they visited the home.

She visited. She said you should also stop wanting an extravagant wedding ceremony. If you want to, people who want a wedding in a castle obviously should own one. You are staggering in your uncouthnessness and lack of grace in my home.

And I suggest that you go to experts immediately for finishing school in the utmost of haste. There are many finishing schools around. But this lying in bed until late in the morning, taking extra food at your meals without being invited to.

Oh. She goes on and on. Must stop for you to be embraced by this family. Well, this went into newspapers across Britain and became a hit, whatever that means, on internet. I'm still trying to learn all these things.

What a wonderful start that daughter-in-law had with her mother-in-law by visiting her future husband's family. It could be a mother-in-law. You show not every mother-in-law is like Naomi and Ruth.

So godly that her daughter-in-law cried out from her soul, where you go I go. My people shall be my people. It is precious that there can be such mother-in-laws. I was in a home right now, wherever I've just come from, Houston, Texas.

And the preacher there, his mother is holding on to life. But he came to the meeting and he said, you know brother, what really is touching is my wife is the one who sits through the whole night. It's someone's day.

Night after night. Not her own daughter, but my wife's there. Not that the daughters are neglecting the mother, but the daughter-in-law so loves her mother. He said, oh what a lovely testimony my wife has.

Just the way she loves her mother-in-law. Even now, sitting through the night beside her. Well, David lived in fear of his life, you know, through Saul, who wanted him dead. And trust me, this might come to you as a shock.

I've been in so many homes where parents-in-law literally would long to see their son-in-law dead. They so hate them. You think it was only Saul, full of carnality, and everything a father-in-law shouldn't be, to break down the happiness of a home that destroys.

No wonder Micah, his daughter, hated, despised David when he danced in victory over the Philistines. It wasn't the dancing, it was the poison. Of her father, that she hated her husband. Destroying. Destroying.

Divided against herself. A terrible thing. It can be your children who destroy your home, and your home's happiness. In 1 Samuel 2 12, we read that the sons of Eli were sons of Belial. They knew not the Lord.

Verse 22, now Eli heard of all the wickedness that his sons did. Verse 23, and he said unto them, Why do ye such things? I want to shock you. Eli's not the only father that weeps, that has wept in front of his children.

He was a man of God. He made mistakes. And God doesn't hide David, the man after his own heart. He doesn't hide the mistakes, even in the holy writ, that men make. But Eli was not the only God-fearing father to look in shock, and shame, and fear, and to fall backward dead.

Not because of the ark, but because of his children's wickedness. That killed their father. Proverbs 30 verse 11, there's a generation that curses their father. The Bible says, I think that's this generation, when I look at 44 years of going into homes, and what the children have done to those parents.

Destroyed them. There's a generation that curses their father, does not bless their mother. But God says in Proverbs 20 20, Whoso curses, curseth his father or mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.

I've seen that. I've quoted that. Days later, those children were dead. In such a judgmental way, nobody doubted it was God. The eye that mocketh his father despises to obey his mother. The ravens of the valley shall pick it out.

The eagles shall eat it. Proverbs 30 verse 17, judgment. God says, Romans 1 30, condemns children who are disobedient to parents, along with Satanists. And murderers. It is equal evil in God's eyes, and no less disobedience to parents.

Cursed be he that setteth light by his father and mother. Cursed, God says. Deuteronomy 27 verse 16, that setteth light by his father or mother. Proverbs 19 verse 26, He that wastes his father, oh, there's a message in that, and chastens away his mother.

It is a son that causeth great shame and bringeth reproach. Proverbs 19 verse 13, a foolish son is the calamity of his father. Do you want to know what the Hebrew means? The destruction. Eli, the destruction, literally.

They destroyed their daddy by their wickedness. A foolish son is the calamity, the destruction, the ruin, the margins, says in the Hebrew, of his father. Proverbs 10 verse 1, A wise son maketh a glad father, but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.

Even if that mother is godly, or that father is godly, a son robs them of happiness. The godliness won't make them happy. That mother will have a heavy heart. That father will die insane. And sorrow. A son can destroy a home.

A wicked child can destroy the home, and destroy his parents' happiness that they deserved, in their fear of God, because the son is wicked. When someone truly comes to Christ from a godless home, when someone truly is converted from a godless home, God warns them of the tragic possibility that the son will dishonor the father.

God says in Micah 7 6, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies are the men of his own house. You see, not everyone in your home, God says, with sorrow, I believe, will be delighted at your turning from sin and evil when they still want that, and their hearts condemn them because of your confrontation.

Their hearts condemn them. And they will rise up, the father against the son, the son against the father. The daughter rises against her mother. Everywhere I find it. You don't know how much an enemy can hurt you, sir, lady, until someone in your own home hates you, because you love God.

You've never known the pangs and hurts of what an enemy can be. You don't know what an enemy is until you find one in your own home. And that, God warns, will happen in home upon home, and I've seen it.

I'm come to set a man at variance against his father, Matthew 10 35. Christ said, the daughter against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, a man's foes, enemies shall be the they of his own household.

Of course, God is repeating what Micah prophesied would be in the gospel dispensation. Persecution within the home. It starts in the home. You don't have to go out there to the wicked. Get truly saved, pilgrim.

Watch how your wife curses you, your daughters curse you, hate everything you are, and despise you, and undermine you. But now I want us all to be very careful here, and this is the total turning point of the sermon.

When Christian Failure Causes Family Offense

We must be very careful, Christian. If the reason that the children resort to curse their father and mother in their hearts is because their father and mother are truly a curse to them, and would destroy them through their own failures, that is terrible.

I'm going to ask all of us this question, every one of you sitting here. Are you tragically offensive? As a Christian, I say tragically, I'm not talking about through godliness, but total folly. Be careful of offensing.

Proverbs 18 verse 19, of course, speaking in the broader sense, but I bring it right to the house, as God allows us to, because that's where it starts, when you get saved. But a brother offended, God says, is harder to be one than a strong city.

Be careful, sir. You might never ever get respect until the day you die, if you offend the members of your household by being offensive. A great godly man in Africa, that when he walked into any church that I was in, the entire church stood in respect.

He said, Keith, a Christian is a gentleman, or he ceases to have the right to be called a Christian. You don't go out to offend, Keith. It's impossible, but that offense will come. You will offend. But if you believe offending is the goal to be righteous, you've missed the mark, and all you are will be a grief to God and man.

You must win them, beloved, without compromise. I agree there, without compromising your own life before God, but always remember this, it is through respect and compassion and love and long-suffering that you win them, not through foolish, foolish, foolish actions and words that will lose them forever.

I want every one of us to think of this very carefully here tonight. You say that you have prayed so long for your loved ones, but I want to ask every one of you to answer this before God. Are you the reason your loved one doesn't want Christianity?

Will you please think of that? Are you the reason? I want you to answer God. For God's sake, what are you doing here if it isn't for God? If your family look upon you as an enemy, because they reject Christ and refuse to repent, that is one thing, but if it is because of your folly and your wrong approach and your offensiveness, then you have totally missed the mark of God.

Totally. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, but you're not blessed and no one near you is blessed if you are persecuted for stupidity, for foolishness, for total folly and arrogance and stepping over the ethical mark and of conduct within your own home.

That common sense will tell anyone, even unsaved people, they've gone too far. They have no right to. If your family look upon you as an enemy because they want to reject Christ and will, that is one thing and that happens everywhere, but if they treat you as an enemy and look upon you as an enemy, because quite frankly, no one in their right mind would want what you have, the way you put it on.

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, but if what they say is true, if they're justified in their accusations, God have mercy on your family.

When we are the reason our children, our loved ones reject Christ, then we are truly the greatest living tragedy our home will ever know if we profess to know Christ. A preacher once said something very tragic with me.

He was to be the main speaker of this great convention here in America and he was accommodated on the upstairs of some cabin or other or some apartment on the whole conference center. Now tragically, the rooms beneath him was another preacher, a very well-known preacher and his wife and this preacher said that as he was trying to sleep these two began to argue and fight and eventually he was in prayer because he had to prepare, he had to get sleep and this was wearing him out as it went on into the early hours of the morning non-stop just nagging and fighting going on.

Oh, no way of cutting out their voices and then he even heard foul language. I mean from a preacher and his wife. The worst guttural languages were flinging out and he couldn't believe and the despair in his heart as he listened.

In his weariness, he said he was praying earnestly for God to stop. He didn't want to witness this. He wasn't trying to ease job. He was a boring it and it was wiping him away emotionally and wearing him out and so he prayed, but he said as he prayed the strangest thing happened suddenly.

It seems the Lord just brought to memory how he had fought with his wife in a room above where their children could hear and he didn't know like these people didn't know that children were listening and it came out one day that those children we heard everything over the years.

Now this preacher said as God began to impress this on his heart, it shook him as never before. Here he was judging this other preacher and his wife, but he had done the same but to his children who had to witness it.

They must have been worn out and grieved and emotionally distressed as he was with this lot. But he was their father. He was like Nathan coming to David, you know, and David judges as well. And then he says out the man.

Not the one. Judging yourself. Found himself groaning before God for forgiveness and forgot about the people downstairs. The damage he did and what he put his family through in his failings. There is great tragedy attached to when people are broken and destroyed by others in the home.

One of the great preachers in Southern Africa. I don't want to use a name and God forgive me if anybody recognizes him that he has this message. But he was esteemed above most preachers in our land when I was a young preacher.

But his son turned to wickedness, landed up in prison and great evils were in that boy's life. Now this man's preaching was great. It wasn't just the norm. He was esteemed. He was revered. But suddenly there was a brokenness in this man's life, and he lost all liberty to preach.

And he became shelved, it seems, by the church throughout our land. Virtually never heard again of ever being used mightily. It seemed he himself was so broken, his son, that he judged himself and couldn't preach anymore.

That's tragic. To me, it's tragic. It is tragic when we see ourselves as failures when our children become failures. Because of our children's sin and pursuit of sin, we see ourselves as failures. Many Christians would never consider attending a half-night of prayer in their entire life until their children, even if it's one, choose to serve the devil.

Healing the Wounds of Parents' Failures

And believe me, I have many nights of prayer, not half-nights. I want to address the children at this point from Christian homes where you have tragically witnessed your parents' failures while they profess to know God and serve God, whether they're a preacher, an elder.

I want to address every child here tonight who comes from Christian homes where your parents would tragically witness their failures. You may tragically hide behind your parents' failures for the rest of your life, blaming them as to why you will never pursue God.

You may tragically hide behind your parents' failures, defend your failure as a person forever, hiding behind them, blaming them. But there must come a time when you need to stop and let God heal you.

God is more than great enough to undo all the damage. God is more than great enough to undo all the damage and to heal every wound caused by their failures, if you let Him and the moment you let Him. When you stand before God, young man, young lady, God isn't going to pull your parent next to Him.

Forgiveness comes. Enormous grace is shown. You will stand alone and nothing you say about your parents will influence God's judgment on you. Because there must come a time when you need to stop and let God heal you and that you can do, no matter what your parents did.

God is more than great enough to undo all the damage, to heal every wound caused by their failures and to deliver you completely from the wounds and the scars inherited from generational sin. John Emerson, Kalispell, Montana, his daughter Brittany is sitting here tonight.

Oh, by the way, just about every statement I'm making, in case you think I've prepared for anybody, is word perfect what people said to me. 1 Peter 2 19 says you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers by the precious blood of Christ.

Listen, this of course is paraphrased by me, but God's blood can undo every single thing that you will blame them forever, and it's up to you to do that and stop hiding behind them as to why you will not pursue God.

You need to listen to me, young person, because I got bad news for you. Wait till you've got children and you fail. You will have incredible mercy in your heart toward the memory of your father and mother when you realize we all need grace.

And forgiveness from each other. But not to blame and become angry and hate them. I would ask every child who is embittered at their parents failures in the home, what if you had not had your parents, but were raised in another home?

I want to repeat that. I want to ask every child who is embittered at their parents failures in the home, what if you had not had your parents, but were raised in another home? Last year in New York, a diamond point where I was this year again, there was a family.

I got the names, won't give it, and I went for tea in their little RV that they brought to this convention that I've just come from now. And I was stunned at the godliness of this woman and man, the father of these children.

Who invited me to come and have tea with them as a family. And I asked their testimonies, but I didn't know what I was in for. The lady was very quiet for a while and so was that entire RV. And she said, all right.

And in great humility, she shared of how the father had sold the children into some form of abuse. And made a living from it. Of course, it was jailed for life. This terrible, wicked, evil man. Yes. But, what to me is so wonderful, is that that woman sought Christ and to me is one of the godliest people I've ever sat with in my life.

The scars are gone. The wounds are gone. I want to ask you again. What if you were raised in another home with all the faults you find? What if you were raised in that home? What if? You still want to judge your parents?

Are you able to, when you know other homes? But look, that woman got up. Why can't you? No matter what the parent did, I wish that lady could be here tonight. I would ask her to come forward and share her testimony the way she did in that caravan.

It was astonishing. But there's no scar left, though she endured that evil. What if? I could just go on this year alone, sitting at a table. It's my custom to ask everyone in conferences, when they make me sit at a table, tell me quickly, where were you saved?

Oh, lovely testimonies. One young lady sitting there. I wasn't saved in such a home as these people. I was saved, but I come from a very abusive home, with drugs, drink, abuse, and she said things. But somehow, through it all, I just kept saying, God, protect my mind from insanity with all I have to endure.

And eventually, how, this godly young man sitting next to her, walked across the street to introduce herself. He had come to the Lord through some sermon I preached years ago, and he now brought her to this convention where I was preaching.

He said, she says, he walked across the road and said, I want to introduce myself. I stay across the road to you. I want your name first, but then I want something else before I say anything else. Are you saved?

I need to know that. I think his heart went a bit of fluster when he saw how beautiful she was. So he crossed the road. But the first thing he asked her, are you saved? By Jesus Christ's blood. She was so staggered.

She says, you know, I've prayed every day for God to protect me, for God to keep me safe, and she said, and he led her to Jesus. He brought her to Christ, and she found peace. But God kept her. Now, she is busy winning that whole home to God, including all the abusive ones in that home.

I think that's wonderful. But now I ask you a question again. What if? What if you were in that home, young person? What if you didn't have your daddy and mommy, and you hide behind their failures. You won't forgive them.

You're bitter against them. Look at that girl. Look at that woman. For God's sake, grow up. Toward yourself. I want to ask every one of you sitting here today. Don't let the past cripple the future. I love that.

Refusing to Let Past Failures Control the Future

I love that statement. When the devil accuses us that all our past failures have caused our children to be destroyed, we must find forgiveness. But we must find also forgiveness toward ourselves. I was with a man, woman in their home, and a number of times I realized they were troubled, but they were pursuing God.

And then one day the children did confront them. One child especially, blaming his father, especially because of the failures in his father's life, while he professed to know Christ as being the reason why he was such a wayward boy, and rejected Christ and Christianity so totally.

He said to his wife as he went to the bedroom and sat weeping on the bed, I am of poor men, most miserable. I am most certainly the worst father that ever lived. His wife said these staggering words to him.

You weren't. We failed. You failed. Under stress, your children didn't know just what stress you were going through to keep them alive and to keep this house so they had a home. We didn't share everything with them to just keep them.

But in that you did fail under the stress of life, the pressures, the things that came on you. I knew when you raised your voice, it was so tempered at times, and impatient. I forgave you because I knew what you, the children didn't know.

We did our best. They might never accept that, but to God, God knew it was our best. We confessed and we found forgiveness from God. You and I on our knees for where there was failures under the weariness of life to both of us.

But I believe our children have the capacity to rise up above the failures they saw in our lives. By the grace of God, the moment they want God to save them in truth. But you and I, we dare not allow ourselves to live in morbid sorrow because of our past failures when we tried so hard.

Though the children judge us like this now. There have been tragic moments of failure in this house. But brother, you have to come to a place that you can commit the past to God. Be cleansed by the blood.

You will never undo the past. But not only the past, you have to commit the future to God. If you don't, the past will cripple the future. Now that is tragically written across many homes. Many fathers, many preachers and many children.

Don't let the past cripple the future child of God. Only Satan would encourage you to do that, not God. Don't obey Satan. Don't submit to him and what he suggests. I was in a vehicle this year and the gentleman who was taking me around the Eastern Cape touring where we spoke to 17 ,000 people in that tour.

And just on a thousand came to Christ. All the gatherings, town after town. Well, in all these rural towns. We came up to the lights that turned red and I just look at these big billboards all over the place.

You know, sometimes I glance at them all advertising, but there was quite a significant remark on one of the billboards. It said, this spot marks the beginning of your future. That's quite something. This spot marks the beginning of what's left of your life.

Don't let the past cripple the future. God doesn't want you to and you have no right to. Take what's left of life, young person. Take what's left of life, father. With both hands, without letting the past failures cripple any hope for the future, that would be sin.

Don't let the past cripple the future toward your wife, brother. No matter what happened, toward your husband, lady, toward your children, no matter what they've done to destroy your life, toward your parents, no matter what failure was in their lives, no matter what the devil reminds you of, of the failures of your mother and father's life, no matter what the devil reminds you of, of your failures of your father and mother's lives, God still says to you, if you profess to know Christ, in 1 Corinthians 13, love suffereth long and is kind.

You can show that to them, for what's left of life. Don't let the past cripple the future of you fulfilling what God says. And let me shock you, it begins in the home or everywhere else is a lie and total hypocrisy.

Love suffereth long, not just a day, but is kind by the grace of God. I want to ask you, did you suffer long from your mother and father's failings? But are you showing them kindness now or doing what the devil wants you to, still bitter against them?

Maybe you didn't know that there's change of life after 40 in most people, especially those who've burned out to keep you alive, young person. And in their weariness, it comes fast through financial strain and many other stresses that life comes at.

You have no idea your father or mother endured, but they did their best for you. Maybe you should just give them the credit due to them, that you didn't see everything that God saw. As he weighed them in the balances of what was going on in their lives that you won't forgive.

Love suffereth long and is kind. What does love mean? Husbands love your wives. Be not bitter against them. Now God says there that it's possible that you as a Christian will be bitter against them, can be, because they're the weaker vessel.

Of course they fail, but husbands love your wives. Love is not rash, not love is not easily provoked. Love endureth all things. Believe it all things hope, but love never fails. This love is agape love, that God commands from children to love their parents, to honor their father and mother, that asks the fathers to love their children.

And don't break their spirit, the literal Greek. To show love, that suffereth long, no matter what you've endured and to be kind, to not be rash, not easily provoked. This love is not a human love. It's not possible.

The actual word is agape. Now, how does God put a different word there? Because he knows you will never be anything but a failure until you let his love love through you. This is God's love. Christianity is not you setting a whole lot of rules and thou shalt not and trying to attain it by your own strength.

Christianity, full stop, is to the degree you yield to God and God through you lives. You see the fruit of the spirit literally means the evidence that the Holy Spirit is controlling you. The evidence is love.

It always starts with love. God's love is revealed through you and God's love is this, not some definition you say of some sentimental little word. It suffers long and is kind. God can do that through you to the degree you yield your life to him totally and ask him for grace you don't have in a human capacity.

Your love's not good enough for this, but God will do it through you. The fruit of the spirit is Christ. Holiness is Christ. Any other standard is total heresy if it replaces Christ. You can only be like Christ, not by your attempts, but by your attempting to so yield your lives to God.