Wednesday, November 12, 2014

As Christ Forgave You

FORGIVE!

Col 3:13  Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

Mat 6:12  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

Mat 6:14  For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
Mat 6:15  But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

FORGIVE!

Stop holding grudges! It doesn't matter  what has been done to you, and I mean that! I do, I really, really do. No, I haven't been through a lot of awful things others have been through and maybe it is easy for me to say this, I don't know. I have had my share of hard knocks, my share of private agonies that have given me the need to forgive others so I do understand that it isn't always easy to forgive.  I have also been in need of forgiveness, a lot of forgiveness.

Maybe it's because I need to be forgiven so much that I know I have to forgive those who have wronged me.

It's not always the case for people though, is it?  Needing to be forgiven equally to forgiving others. Some people have to forgive horrific things when they've never done anything nearly as horrific as what was done to them.  Some are quite innocent in the grand scheme of things compared to the awfulness they endure.  Yet there is something we do need to remember perhaps, something that puts things into perspective a little tiny bit-

A single sin left unforgiven by our Savior warrants death.  And that single sin warrants death because that unforgiven sin no matter how tiny separates us from our God.  And when we are separated from God we are separated from the very source of life eternal.  If we separate ourselves from the source of eternal life we have no eternal life, we have death.

No sin should be left unforgiven.

If we need to forgive someone for a one time horror, or a slew of horrors, then that is what we need to do because we need every single one of our sins to be forgiven. 

People will say they can never forgive the horrors beyond imagining, and shouldn't have to. They say this without realizing that our forgiving others HELPS US!  It is in a way- self serving to forgive, to truly forgive. 

And when we say we need to forgive someone we must forgive entirely. Forgiving means recognizing the wrong and choosing to NOT let that wrong keep us from loving.  That's what we want from our Savior when He forgive us, isn't it? We want Him to recognize we've sinned and choose to love us even though we have sinned.  We want Him to love us even though we've wronged Him, even though we've chosen to separate ourselves from Him in our sinning.  He is LIFE!

More tomorrow all by the GRACE of our LORD and SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST!



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