Daily Devotional: August 29

 

Not Getting What We Deserve

 

 

⁸ The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
    slow to anger, abounding in love.
⁹ He will not always accuse,
    nor will he harbor his anger forever;
¹⁰ he does not treat us as our sins deserve
    or repay us according to our iniquities.
¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his love for those who fear him;
¹² as far as the east is from the west,
    so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

¹³ As a father has compassion on his children,
    so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
¹⁴ for he knows how we are formed,
    he remembers that we are dust.

 

Bible Reading: Psalm 103:8-14

 

      HALF OF understanding forgiveness is knowing what it isn’t. More on that next time. The other half is knowing exactly what it is. Check out these definitions-at least one of them will make sense to you:

       Forgiveness means “to erase, to forego what is due” … “to give up resentment”… “to wipe the slate dean, to release from a debt, to cancel punishment” … “to per­sonally accept the price of reconciliation” … “to give up all claims on the one who has hurt you and let go of the emotional consequences of that hurt.” Forgiveness not only means you say the words “I forgive you” but that you also let go of your wounded emotions.

     Forgiving is an action. It doesn’t allow you to sit around and wait for the person who walloped you to say, “I was wrong; will you forgive me?” Just as Jesus died for you while you were still a sinner (see Romans 5:8), forgiving means you take the first step in healing a relationship.

     Forgiving also means you “give up or give away.” It means you give up the right to get even-no matter how good revenge would feel. Forgiving means you give mercy instead of demanding justice.

If you don’t like that approach to life, ponder this: It wouldn’t be smart to pray for justice in your relationship with God, because his justice would wipe you out. What you want to ask for is his mercy, the stuff that allows you to be forgiven in spite of your sin.

      It works the same way in your human relationships. The world tells you to hate. God says to love. The world says you are entitled to revenge. God says to forgive.

     Why? Because God wants you to forgive in the same way he forgives you-com­pletely and continually. To the Colossians, Paul wrote, “God has purchased our free­dom with his blood and has forgiven all our sins” (verse 1:14). In Hebrews 10, we discover that Christ’s forgiveness was “once for all time” (verse 10). Once he had of­fered himself as the sacrifice for sin, “he sat down at the place of highest honor at God’s right hand” (verse 12).

     God doesn’t forgive you because of something you’ve done but because of who Jesus Christ is and what he accomplished for you through the cross. That’s your model for forgiving others. You don’t forgive because the person who hurt you has changed or begged for your forgiveness, but because you have a Christ like readiness to simply forgive.

 

REFLECT: Are you a forgiving person?

PRAY: Ask Christ to share his heart of forgiveness with you today