forgiving others, forgiving ourselves
Forgiveness. Not the first time I've written about forgiveness, but it's kind of been at the forefront of some things in my life these days. I hear it talked about a lot on the radio and the Bible is full of stories of forgiveness. You'll see some quotes from the Bible in this posting. For editorial purposes, the quotes from Scripture are from the New International Version of the Bible (NIV). It's a better translation for us modern-day folks.
I'm going to start out today with Matthew 6:14-15: For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
That's pretty direct, and the words of Jesus himself as he's finishing a talk about how to pray. The passages come at the end of the Lord's Prayer.
In Matthew 18:21-22it says: Then Peter came to Jesus and asked "Lord how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered "I tell you not seven times but seventy-seven times". You get the point. Yet Jesus doesn't stop there and goes on to tell a parable about one king forgiving a servant's debt only to find the servant not acting toward another in the manner the king treated him. It's a great story.
Another example of forgiveness is found in Luke 7:41-42 where Jesus says: " Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denari, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them loved him more?"
Simon replied "The one who had the bigger debt canceled. "You have judged correctly", Jesus said.
That's an interesting perspective from the one who needs to be forgiven. Sometimes people do REALLY STUPID things, for various reasons. Sometimes they don't care, but often times when they see the hurt and pain they've caused, they do care and ask for forgiveness. In the above story, those that are forgiven much love much for that forgiveness. I can testify to you first hand this is true and couldn't explain anything better than this story in the Bible does. You will find no greater love than someone who can forgive the unforgivable. Trust me, I know.
What cost do you put on forgiveness? Does your forgiveness come with a dollar amount? Can you forgive a friend for not paying you back that dollar he borrowed? What about thousands of dollars? What could a friend or loved one do to you that you can forgive? Where do you draw that line? God gave us His only Son, Jesus. He did on the cross to forgive the sins of mankind from that moment to this. Kind of makes whatever pricetag your forgiveness has seem pretty petty, doesn't it?
This was a hard thing for me to accept as a Christian. I had to forgive people their sins against me. I forgave a pretty significant debt even though I had no part in the reason I had to (no, not me & the wife). There were other things I could have done to recover the money I was owed, I suppose, but in the end, I chose not to because I didn't feel it was the Christian thing to do. I didn't think it was important to add to the pain the person was going through.
A pause in my story for a personal note...Bucket, the jailbird mutt, wants to play throw the rubber bone. It's 12:49 a.m.
Back to the story...When I found Christ, I asked him to forgive my many sins, so forgiving others for theirs, perceived or real, against me wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, save one. One was pretty difficult. I pray for people I don't much care for. That was harder. I asked a few people to forgive me. Some did; some might not. But you want to know something? The hardest person I had to forgive, though, was me.
I've done some not so nice things in my life. I hurt someone deeply. I was selfish. Sometimes I was arrogant. Jesus could forgive those things in me, but I had a really hard time forgiving myself for them. I lived with a tremendous amount of guilt for a very long time. Remorse and I are on a nickname basis for some of the things I've done. Yet, I figured out that if Christ forgave me, and I turned away from those sins, never to repeat them, then I could forgive myself. I figured out what caused me to do the things I did and made a vow to never repeat them and to never treat people the way I used to. My therapist gave me some great tools to use so that I can be that better person and they've made a positive impact on my life.
Friends and neighbors, forgiveness is important. I can't tell you how good I feel now that the burden of the many sins of the past have been lifted away by Christ's love for me. God has pointed me in a new direction. One I never thought possible, but with Him, ANYTHING is possible. Some of the people in my life I forgave probably could care less. Some will never know I did. Others, it mattered a great deal to. I know forgiving me was the hardest thing I think I've ever done and I'm sure I'm not the only person that struggles with this.
Have you talked with Jesus lately? Have you invited him into your life? I can't begin to explain to you the many good things that have happened to me since I did. I've seen the awesome power of God at work in my life in a positive way. That's how I know I've been forgiven! It may not look like it from the outside looking in, but things in my life are going in a positive direction. Without the forgiveness of Christ, my life would be a mess. These days, the sun shines and there's a bit of a happy song in my heart because I learned to love, I learned to forgive, and I learned to listen and follow God.
Folks, it all started with forgiveness, from the one that matters most! That's my story for this Sunday. Don't forget church. And my the Lord add his blessings to the reading of His holy word used in today's blog, and also into your life.
Coop
I'm going to start out today with Matthew 6:14-15: For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
That's pretty direct, and the words of Jesus himself as he's finishing a talk about how to pray. The passages come at the end of the Lord's Prayer.
In Matthew 18:21-22it says: Then Peter came to Jesus and asked "Lord how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered "I tell you not seven times but seventy-seven times". You get the point. Yet Jesus doesn't stop there and goes on to tell a parable about one king forgiving a servant's debt only to find the servant not acting toward another in the manner the king treated him. It's a great story.
Another example of forgiveness is found in Luke 7:41-42 where Jesus says: " Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denari, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them loved him more?"
Simon replied "The one who had the bigger debt canceled. "You have judged correctly", Jesus said.
That's an interesting perspective from the one who needs to be forgiven. Sometimes people do REALLY STUPID things, for various reasons. Sometimes they don't care, but often times when they see the hurt and pain they've caused, they do care and ask for forgiveness. In the above story, those that are forgiven much love much for that forgiveness. I can testify to you first hand this is true and couldn't explain anything better than this story in the Bible does. You will find no greater love than someone who can forgive the unforgivable. Trust me, I know.
What cost do you put on forgiveness? Does your forgiveness come with a dollar amount? Can you forgive a friend for not paying you back that dollar he borrowed? What about thousands of dollars? What could a friend or loved one do to you that you can forgive? Where do you draw that line? God gave us His only Son, Jesus. He did on the cross to forgive the sins of mankind from that moment to this. Kind of makes whatever pricetag your forgiveness has seem pretty petty, doesn't it?
This was a hard thing for me to accept as a Christian. I had to forgive people their sins against me. I forgave a pretty significant debt even though I had no part in the reason I had to (no, not me & the wife). There were other things I could have done to recover the money I was owed, I suppose, but in the end, I chose not to because I didn't feel it was the Christian thing to do. I didn't think it was important to add to the pain the person was going through.
A pause in my story for a personal note...Bucket, the jailbird mutt, wants to play throw the rubber bone. It's 12:49 a.m.
Back to the story...When I found Christ, I asked him to forgive my many sins, so forgiving others for theirs, perceived or real, against me wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, save one. One was pretty difficult. I pray for people I don't much care for. That was harder. I asked a few people to forgive me. Some did; some might not. But you want to know something? The hardest person I had to forgive, though, was me.
I've done some not so nice things in my life. I hurt someone deeply. I was selfish. Sometimes I was arrogant. Jesus could forgive those things in me, but I had a really hard time forgiving myself for them. I lived with a tremendous amount of guilt for a very long time. Remorse and I are on a nickname basis for some of the things I've done. Yet, I figured out that if Christ forgave me, and I turned away from those sins, never to repeat them, then I could forgive myself. I figured out what caused me to do the things I did and made a vow to never repeat them and to never treat people the way I used to. My therapist gave me some great tools to use so that I can be that better person and they've made a positive impact on my life.
Friends and neighbors, forgiveness is important. I can't tell you how good I feel now that the burden of the many sins of the past have been lifted away by Christ's love for me. God has pointed me in a new direction. One I never thought possible, but with Him, ANYTHING is possible. Some of the people in my life I forgave probably could care less. Some will never know I did. Others, it mattered a great deal to. I know forgiving me was the hardest thing I think I've ever done and I'm sure I'm not the only person that struggles with this.
Have you talked with Jesus lately? Have you invited him into your life? I can't begin to explain to you the many good things that have happened to me since I did. I've seen the awesome power of God at work in my life in a positive way. That's how I know I've been forgiven! It may not look like it from the outside looking in, but things in my life are going in a positive direction. Without the forgiveness of Christ, my life would be a mess. These days, the sun shines and there's a bit of a happy song in my heart because I learned to love, I learned to forgive, and I learned to listen and follow God.
Folks, it all started with forgiveness, from the one that matters most! That's my story for this Sunday. Don't forget church. And my the Lord add his blessings to the reading of His holy word used in today's blog, and also into your life.
Coop
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