te of love, and the opposite of love is hate. Impatience is
hate, envy is hate, conceit and self-will are hate, and so are
selfishness, irritability and resentment! And hate is SIN. "He that
saith he is in the light and hateth his brother, is in the darkness
even until now." What tensions, barriers and discord it all causes,
and fellowship with both God and the other is made impossible.

The Only Way Out.

Now the question is, do I want new life, revival, in my home? I have
got to challenge my heart about this. Am I prepared to continue in
this state or am I really hungry for new life, His life, in my home?
For not unless I am really hungry will I be willing to take the
necessary steps. The first step I must take is to call sin, sin (my
sin, not the other person's) and go with it to the Cross, and trust
the Lord Jesus there and then to cleanse me from it.

As we bow the neck at the Cross, His self-forgetful love for the
others, His longsuffering and forbearance flow into our hearts. The
precious Blood cleanses us from the unlove and ill will and the Holy
Spirit fills us with the very nature of Jesus. 1 Corinthians 13 is
nothing less than the nature of Jesus, and it is all gift to us, for
His nature is ours, if He is ours. This blessed process can happen
every single time the beginnings of sin and unlove creep in, for the
cleansing fountain of Blood is available to us all the time.

All this will commit us very definitely to walking the Way of the
Cross in our homes. Again and again we will see places where we must
yield up our rights, as Jesus yielded up His for us. We shall have to
see that the thing in us that reacts so sharply to another's
selfishness and pride, is simply our own selfishness and pride, which
we are unwilling to sacrifice. We shall have to accept another's ways
and doings as God's will for us and meekly bend the neck to all God's
providences. That does not mean that we must accept another's
selfishness as God's will for them--far from it--but only as God's
will for us. As far as the other is concerned, God will probably want
to use us, if we are broken, to help him see his need. Certainly, if
we are a parent we shall often need to correct our child with
firmness. But none of this is to be from selfish motives, but only
out of love for the other and a longing for their good. Our own
convenience and rights must all the time be yielded. Only so will the
love of the Lord Jesus be able to fill us and