Colossians 3:13
"Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." (NKJV)
Forgiveness: "God’s gift to allow you to be who He made you to be in the face of real evil and real pain." -Bob Hamp
The great thing about forgiveness is that it has the power to open the door to your freedom and ultimately connect you to the work that God already performed through Jesus on the cross, but you must choose it. That means you choose to live with the consequences of other’s sin and not charge it to their account. This is never an easy choice, and in some cases, it may be the most difficult choice a human can make. In the Garden of Gesthemane, Jesus made this choice the night before His crucifixion. This choice required such intense prayer that the Son of God sweat drops of blood as He chose to take our sins upon Himself....and not charge them to our account.
Forgiveness is giving whomever offended you back to God, and when you release them, you give them over to God for Him to work justice in their lives. That means you choose to live with the consequences of other’s sin and not charge it to their account This also allows God to work out healing in your life.
We need to learn that we cannot heal ourselves. When you give up the role of being your own healer, you make room for God to do what He does best. I am convinced that the healing and restoration of our souls is the real goal of forgiveness. This allows us to be who we are created to be even when we have faced real evil or real pain.
Monday
Thursday
Master or Servant?
Matthew 6:24-25
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life.” (ESV)
I recently had a friend confess to me how broken, inferior, and weak he felt. He said the heaviness of that brings so much fear and anxiety that it even affects his relationships. When you’re in that place it’s easy to feel alone and isolated. It makes you feel as if you are the only person who feels that way.
In reality, we're all "broken." Think about it. None of us make it out of here alive, and just that in itself is enough to keep us on edge & filled with anxiety. There's nothing wrong or unusual about feeling fear every once in a while or feeling inadequate at times. I personally feel that way a lot. Sometimes a feeling of failure and weakness just rushes over me out of nowhere. It’s scary, and it often feels like the sky is falling. Where are you going to hide from that?
But when you think about it, isn’t that a blessing in a way? Fear, worry, doubt, etc. reminds us that we don't have all the answers, that we aren't all-powerful, and we aren't as mentally tough as we sometimes convince ourselves to be. Imagine going through life without experiencing the weight of your weakness and sin. Why would we ever trust God? What would we repent of?
If when things go bad, and we don't worry (or even worry about the idea of things going bad), then we'd go through life getting clobbered all the time, wouldn’t we? So, in a way, our weakness and doubts protect us and force us to look outside of ourselves for strength, encouragement...faith. Our weaknesses and the knowledge that we really are broken point us to God.
But here is the turning point. Just like money; insecurity & fear is a horrible master…but it can be a wonderful servant. The question is: Is it directing our hearts toward God and stirring up raised hands of praise to Him, or is it dragging our hearts further away from Him and causing us to raise our fist toward Him? Who or what is the master? Who or what is the servant?
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life.” (ESV)
I recently had a friend confess to me how broken, inferior, and weak he felt. He said the heaviness of that brings so much fear and anxiety that it even affects his relationships. When you’re in that place it’s easy to feel alone and isolated. It makes you feel as if you are the only person who feels that way.
In reality, we're all "broken." Think about it. None of us make it out of here alive, and just that in itself is enough to keep us on edge & filled with anxiety. There's nothing wrong or unusual about feeling fear every once in a while or feeling inadequate at times. I personally feel that way a lot. Sometimes a feeling of failure and weakness just rushes over me out of nowhere. It’s scary, and it often feels like the sky is falling. Where are you going to hide from that?
But when you think about it, isn’t that a blessing in a way? Fear, worry, doubt, etc. reminds us that we don't have all the answers, that we aren't all-powerful, and we aren't as mentally tough as we sometimes convince ourselves to be. Imagine going through life without experiencing the weight of your weakness and sin. Why would we ever trust God? What would we repent of?
If when things go bad, and we don't worry (or even worry about the idea of things going bad), then we'd go through life getting clobbered all the time, wouldn’t we? So, in a way, our weakness and doubts protect us and force us to look outside of ourselves for strength, encouragement...faith. Our weaknesses and the knowledge that we really are broken point us to God.
But here is the turning point. Just like money; insecurity & fear is a horrible master…but it can be a wonderful servant. The question is: Is it directing our hearts toward God and stirring up raised hands of praise to Him, or is it dragging our hearts further away from Him and causing us to raise our fist toward Him? Who or what is the master? Who or what is the servant?
Wednesday
True Repentance
Hebrews 12:15-17
“See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God….that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.” (ESV)
This has always been one of those really puzzling and heavy verses for me. Think about it. Why did Esau find no place of repentance for simply selling his birthright "though he sought it with tears," while someone like David found repentance for adultery and murder?
In the end, Esau’s life was marked by a refusal to follow God’s ways. He was always only concerned about what was in it for him in the moment. In fact, Genesis 25 says that he despised his birthright, because he thought a meal was more important in the moment. After he got what he wanted, he stood up from the table and went on about his business. It wasn’t until after he lost the blessings of his birthright to his brother, Jacob, that he finally repented. And even then he was only repenting to get back what he had lost.
David, on the other hand, was a man whose life was marked by a passionate love and pursuit of God. He knew that his sins had separated him from God, so when he finally repented (in Psalm 51), that broken relationship was restored. This is true repentance.
In the same way, Jesus, whose life (and death) was marked by a passionate love and pursuit of us, came to restore our relationship with God, which was broken by our sin. And if our repentance is based on anything other than that, we are missing the true meaning of repentance. And we will never find it...even though we seek it through tears. (2 Corinthians 7:10)
“See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God….that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.” (ESV)
This has always been one of those really puzzling and heavy verses for me. Think about it. Why did Esau find no place of repentance for simply selling his birthright "though he sought it with tears," while someone like David found repentance for adultery and murder?
In the end, Esau’s life was marked by a refusal to follow God’s ways. He was always only concerned about what was in it for him in the moment. In fact, Genesis 25 says that he despised his birthright, because he thought a meal was more important in the moment. After he got what he wanted, he stood up from the table and went on about his business. It wasn’t until after he lost the blessings of his birthright to his brother, Jacob, that he finally repented. And even then he was only repenting to get back what he had lost.
David, on the other hand, was a man whose life was marked by a passionate love and pursuit of God. He knew that his sins had separated him from God, so when he finally repented (in Psalm 51), that broken relationship was restored. This is true repentance.
In the same way, Jesus, whose life (and death) was marked by a passionate love and pursuit of us, came to restore our relationship with God, which was broken by our sin. And if our repentance is based on anything other than that, we are missing the true meaning of repentance. And we will never find it...even though we seek it through tears. (2 Corinthians 7:10)
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