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Thoughts on Today’s Verse…
How can I not forgive a brother or sister for whom Christ died, when I know what God paid to forgive me?
My Prayer…
Holy Father, I commit today to release any grudge or bitterness that I have against one of your children. I am sorry for not reflecting your grace and mercy which you lavished on me. Abba Father, I need the help of your Holy Spirit to relinquish my claim on the wrongs committed against me and to treat those who have hurt me as full siblings in your family. Please empower me as I commit to follow your example in forgiving, even when it is hard. Through Jesus I pray. Amen.
Bible References
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.
Well this just goes against everything the world teaches doesn’t it? The mentality in our culture says, “Don’t get mad, get even!” But God teaches the complete opposite, which if you have known the Lord for any length of time at all, should not surprise you! The whole 3rd chapter of Colossians instructs those who know Jesus as Lord on how to go about holy living.
We are told to be patient with each other. Anytime we are around someone for a time, it is inevitable that we will discover their failings, it will many times take the grace of God for us to tolerate their shortcomings, just as it will for them to put up with ours! But it is crucial that we show the love of Christ in our dealings one another. When God places a difficult individual in our life, He is not just trying to teach the other person something through us, but we ourselves are to learn the lesson of patience that is being taught by Him as well.
We are told to forgive our grievances against one another. Few disputes among God’s people could not be solved quickly if this was obeyed. If someone offends us we are to forgive them at once and refuse to remain upset about the matter. If we find that the offense can not be taken lightly, the Word of God instructs us in Matthew 18:15-17 to go to that person and talk about how to get the matter settled. I just want to say that in my opinion we should have an attitude of grace towards others and give them the benefit of the doubt, they may have not intended to offend us at all, it is just the way we took it.
We are told in the last sentence of our verse why we are to forgive. Because Christ forgave us. Could there be any greater incentive for us to forgive than this? I, for one, am sure thankful that He forgave me! He forgave us without cause, so should we. He forgave and He forgot. So should we. The goal of every believer should be to follow Christ and His example. If we are truly going to exhibit the love that God instructs us to in His Word, we MUST be forgiving of one another, there is just no way around it. When we are forgiving to those who have wronged us either on purpose or unintentionally, we release the power of God to give us peace and to settle the matter if need be, plus we save ourselves a lot of anger and discontent in the process!
Thank You Jesus for forgiving me, help me to show that forgiveness to those in my life for Your glory and honor this day, Amen!