STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART

Matthew 18:21-22
“…how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.”
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It could be 7 times. It could be seventy-seven times. And it may even be seventy times seven. The Lord doesn’t and will not care how many times you do it. What he expects us to do is to do it repeatedly. We have to do it many times. And we have to do it from the heart – forgiving and then forgetting. For how can we ask God to forgive our sins, when we ourselves cannot forgive others? How can we ask God to give us what we need, when we ourselves cannot give to others what they need?

Learning to forgive implies that forgiveness is a learned process, not an automatic response. Our sinful flesh has a high resistance to laying offenses aside – we always want to take revenge. We want others to suffer as we suffer. Within our vicious mind, retaliation is most often not an option, but rather it's a driving force – the only option - it has to get even!

Learning to forgive begins with understanding what God says about forgiveness in the Bible. According to Scripture, we are the ones who must put off the old and learn of God and choose His ways. The Spirit dwells within us and teaches us that forgiving repeatedly is an act worth of Heaven.

Our Christian life should be a changed life. We should forgive others no matter how many times they sin, as we live a progressively more holy life as we grow closer to Christ. “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18). “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace” (Ephesians 1:7). When was the last time you forgave someone of his sin? Have you done it straight from the heart?

Almighty Father, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Solidify our understanding of forgiveness as you have done for us.

“I did not asked for forgiveness,
and yet You died for me.
And I have to do it again and again,
forgiving and forgetting their sins to me.”

Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior.