3-14-2023

Good Morning All,

          Matthew 6:12; “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

    “Well, I might forgive them, in time, but I will never forget it!”  Have you ever heard someone say this?  Have you ever said it?  Have you ever had someone say this about and to you?  I have heard it said a few times and it is always a very sad situation.  I have known people who have carried this anger and grudge with them for many years and they always seem to be angry or sad and just have a bleak outlook on life.  They never seem to enjoy life.

     Yet it can be tough to forgive others.  The slights and the pain that other can cause, especially if we seem to lose ground and they seem to gain ground, can really bog you down with a sense of morose despondency.  Life is bitter because the sin we hold onto is bitter, almost like the bile of the body.  It leaves a bad taste in our mouths.

     Yet we come by this unwillingness to forgive others naturally.  For one thing, we like to have that list of “wrongs” that were committed against us.  We may even want to hold it so we can show God how much we endured here on earth.  We like to think that we truly are martyrs, even if it is in our own mind.  There seems to be a deeper reason that we do not forgive others and that is because we are so slow to forgive ourselves.  We spend a lot of time beating ourselves up remembering all the wrongs that we have done.  We then cling to the notion that if I am unforgivable than everyone is unforgivable.

    We have so much practice and not forgiving ourselves.  The devil likes to help us to not forgive.  As long as we do not forgive ourselves and we do not forgive our neighbors, reconciliation is almost impossible.  It is usually necessary that we forgive ourselves first.  We do this by repentance.  When we repent, we get rid of the guilt of sin.  The devil can no longer use that as a trump card in our life.  When we repent, the devil no longer has a hammer to beat us with; it is destroyed.  A life of repentance, where we continually see that our life exists only through God’s grace, frees us from the burdens and the guilt of this world.  When we lose that guilt; it becomes easier to forgive others. 

     This is part of the blessing that the forgiveness of sins has for us.  We can throw the guilt of sin, the sting of sin, out the door because Jesus has already paid the debt and God has already forgiven the sins.  We no longer have to bear the load of sin; the weight is no longer on our back.  God’s pure mercy gives us the victory to tell the devil to take a hike when he comes with his snide whining about how bad we really are.  We are God’s redeemed children.  We are at the same time saints and sinners but the most important thing to remember is that at the end of the day, no matter what, we are still God’s chosen, redeemed children.  That should always be a source of comfort to us. 

     That comfort should then help to provide the impetus to forgive others.  Hanging onto their sins is just as heavy a burden as hanging onto our own sins.  Let them go and enjoy the life which God has designed us for, a life of contentment and of reconciliation.

Dear Father in heaven, to you alone belong all glory.  Too often, we fail to forgive others and we fail to forgive our self.  Help us, dear Lord, as we go forth in life and lead us to the true knowledge that forgiveness gives us peace in you.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret