Please Forgive Me

I am quite demoralized after going to Bible study Thursday night and not getting any pictures. Not even of the food!! It was good food too. Josh turned out three crock pots and types of chicken and barley stew along with four types of bread, made from scratch. And Wes showed up! A better encourager and finger-pointer at God's glory is hard to find.

Study Topic - mostly forgiveness. The act of forgiveness has always been a difficult one for me to grasp. It's similar to how I like to have a plan for most things (not making plans, just having them), or how I like to understand something completely before jumping into or accepting it. It's an issue of control for sure. But I also get lazy, of course, and then all that stuff can go out the window.

If I'm going to forgive someone of something, I want to reconcile everything they did, know that they wanted forgiveness, and won't do it again. I hold quite a bit of contempt for a person who I believe is likely to perform whatever the offense is again in the future. Not biblical of course - Matthew 18:21 I strain just for the knowledge that the person wants to change or keep it from happening again, to help me out.

The Bible tells us that we must ask for forgiveness from God for our sins, and praise Him, we can receive it! Acts 13:38 But it tells us that we have to recognize our wrongdoing before him, and repent. It doesn't tell us that WE have to have that requirement for others though. Mark 11:25 Actually, it does. Luke 17:3,4 I haven't resolved this verse yet, but teachers and Godly men far wiser than I teach that we are required to forgive regardless, and many other verses testify this aspect as well.. Jesus asked His Father to forgive the people who were despising and hurting Him at the cross, even while they were doing it. They weren't repentant yet, and that wasn't a saving act of forgiveness, it was an act of grace and a forgiving spirit. (Luke 23:34)

James McDonald read the definition in a recent (recent to me) sermon on forgiveness to be "Releasing someone from the responsibility of making things right for what they may have done to offend you and from it's consequences." (paraphrased on my part) Well, defining it like that at least gives me something methodical to start with. If Erika steals my dessert at church dinner, part of forgiveness will look like not expecting or demanding her to return it or pay for it or even say sorry. But that's just the emotionless logical part of it. There's alot of anger, hurt and other emotion in many offenses. I pity the person who can just cover those emotions, because they'll never go away, nor the signs that they are there.

Forgiveness, like most other spiritual disciplines, is a continuous refocusing of our priories onto God's priorities. If I forgive, I will not only have a vision of my interaction with the offender being absent of payment or retribution, but also, of encouraging and benefiting them in what I do. I will pray for the person, and not just a lofty prayer about him/her becoming a nicer person :-) I will try to do whats best and profitable FOR them in everything I do. Wow...forgiveness got a little easier for a second there, and then ALOT harder. It's about what our goals really are, not just an action!

Erika, I FORGIVE you for taking my dessert!!!!! :-)

There are definitely folks I have struggled to forgive, who have just as much or more to forgive me for. It's a work in progress that has gone further recently. I hope I beat them to completion, though I have no way of knowing.

Disclaimer - The illustrations in this post were completely fictional and the above mentioned names are not involved in any offenses to myself....that I know of...but Erika still deserves harassment. Thank you for being our object lesson today!