“Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.”
Matthew 18:21-22 KJV
“So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.”
Matthew 18:35 KJV
See Also: Matthew 18:23-34
I LOVE a good quote. Reading someone else describing exactly how I feel makes me feel a little less alone in this world. It’s why I also love to write. To get to be able to connect with people where they are is a precious gift and I’ll do it until the day I die. Yet every quote I like, or I feel resonates with me doesn’t necessarily make it good for me.
Last week I wrote about being careful what we allow into our spirits. Even secularly people understand “the law of attraction“, yet we can still be so careless with what we allow ourselves to agree with. So here is a real world example of me practicing what I teach. [Sidebar: This only applies to you if you believe that God is the authority in your life and that the Bible is the Holy and infallible word of God. If you do, then boy do I have news for you....]
Since I wrote you last I came across this quote on my tumblr account:
My first response was, “ Absolutely “. Then the Holy Ghost in me tugged at me and said “ No ma’am”.
As humans we feel we have the right to hold things against people when they do us, or the ones we love wrong. We are so quick to “cancel” or throw away people when we feel they have disappointed us, when they have hurt us especially in ways we could never have imagined.
As if we have never done or been tempted to do the unthinkable.
The parable in between the two scriptures above talks about a man with a debt he couldn’t repay, and how his debtor forgave him. When the man that was forgiven chose to be merciless, his debtor comes back to punish his unforgiveness. This is the parable God uses to teach us the importance of forgiveness. He warns us that He will treat us the way we treat others.
He reminds us that we still reap what we sow, and if we sow unforgiveness, unforgiveness is what we will reap.
This isn‘t what we want to hear when we are wronged. We feel like God should give us a pass because it’s us. But the thing is, He gives us passes all the time. Without question He daily forgives us, loves us, and makes provision for us. He’s only asking that we extend some of the grace He’s given us.
To be quite honest, it’s the people we love the most who have the capability to hurt us the worst. Isn’t that who we are to God? Doesn’t He love us the most?
Don’t we hurt Him the worst?
Where would we be if He decided to throw us away every time we lied on Him? If He "canceled" us when we disregarded His Word ? And isn’t it so wonderful that there’s nothing we can do that He won’t forgive?
So we have to not only forgive like He forgives, but feed ourselves forgiveness by reading God’s Word and rejecting any ideology that contradicts it.
So, 490. Seventy times seven is four hundred ninety. God is calling us to forgive everyone we know four hundred ninety times everyday until we die or until Christ returns. I know I’m not going to change your mind tomorrow, but once we begin to practice the Biblical principles we preach and teach about, it begins to form habits that more closely align to who God has called us to be all along.
Today I’m encouraging you to choose to forgive. I'm encouraging you to work at it everyday until it becomes a habit. We have to start somewhere, why not here?