Good morning Zebras,
Happy Sunday.
I have had a lot of reasons to be thinking about forgiveness
lately. We are often taught that
forgiveness is a process, something to work towards. But that is the way man teaches forgiveness. God forgave instantly and completely the moment
we asked.
That is how God forgives and that is how we are to forgive,
completely, instantly and forever.
But that kind of forgiveness can’t be “worked-up,” that kind
of forgiveness comes from God.
At the end of a very long sermon on the steps to forgiveness
the author summoned up with this: “As God has forgiven you, you are to forgive
those who have hurt you. As God has reconciled with you, you are to reconcile
with others.”
He probably didn’t see the irony. He had just given seven steps to forgiveness
and reconciliation and then ends with “forgive as God forgave you.”
God didn’t take seven steps to forgive us. He just forgave.
One-way Satan has gotten into the church is through the
blending of psychology and the Bible.
And it has been in the church so long most of us can’t remember a time
when it wasn’t there. We take for truth
the things that have been written by men.
Nowhere in the Bible does it say, “work towards forgiveness.” It says forgive.
A pastor once told me if you have trouble forgiving others,
you don’t know how much God has forgiven you.
And that rang true because I know you can’t love others unless you know
how much you’re loved.
God loves us, God forgave us, God gave us His Spirit so we
could do the same.
Please don’t be the unforgiving servant, forgiven everything
yet arrogantly refusing to forgive others, Matthew 18: 21-35, because If you
read the parable you’ll see that didn’t work out too well for him.
Love,
Jill
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