Week 5, Day 31 - The Forgiven Forgive

"'Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?' Jesus answered, 'I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven.'"  Matthew 18: 21,22

REFLECT

Are there limits to forgiveness? Apparently only the limits we place there. Jesus makes one thing clear: if we are stingy with forgiveness, everybody suffers for it.

Jesus followed His comment about "seventy times seven" with a parable. A servant in deep debt to his master, on the verge of bankruptcy and losing his family, is then released or forgiven by his master. The master takes pity, cancels the debt and lets the man go free. But, that same servant who has been forgiven a debt of hundreds of thousands of dollars, then proceeds to shake down someone who owes him a few day's wages.

We're told it dozens of different ways in Scripture: If we receive the blessing of forgiveness of God, how can we possibly not forgive people we hold in our debt? How can this not be the believers' highest calling, most developed skill, and deepest instinct? God forgives us so that we can forgive each other. But this hard-hearted, battle worn, war-mongering world knows little of this instinct.

Be honest. What is your gut-level response toward people who hurt you? If your reaction is to want to craft a way to get even, you are not alone. But you have to ask yourself whether you want to belong to a human race that only knows eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, or whether you will take a gospel ride to a higher plane; a plane where the Holy Spirit empowers us to rise above injury and insult. This is God's realm of unconditional love. It is the realm of the supernatural. That is the level of where God desires our minds to be renewed. The choice to trust God to take us to the place where forgiveness is limitless is ours. What will you choose?

MAKE IT REAL

Take a few minutes to think about a person who has been the most difficult person for you to extend forgiveness. Talk to God about why it is so difficult to forgive, and ask Him to help you take the first step in the direction of forgiveness for that individual. Write about it in a journal so you can return again to the wonder of answered prayer. It will be worth the journey.

Day 32