Tuesday, October 04, 2011

Forgive 70x7 - October 4, 2011

Good Tuesday morning! Can you ever forgive someone? No, you must always forgive everyone! In our lives we are going to come across persons who wrong us, organizations that wrong us, and even a diabolical self that wrongs us. Forgiveness is an essential element of our Christian life and growth. For those who have hurt us deeply, we may have to spend a little time each day forgiving them for years to come. The pain of what happened in a particular moment in time may fade only slowly. And each time we remember the hurt from that moment, we may need to forgive one more time. Jesus gave us a guideline to follow when he told the disciples they must forgive seventy times seven times. Some hurts are so deep that forgiving the person seven times is only a good start. Actually, forgiving the first time may not even be the most difficult.


At times a hurt might cause one of us to stew on the events that led up to or caused the hurt. Therein lies the key to why forgiveness is so very important. God is not hurt when we continue to stew in the pain, but He does mourn for us. God longs to heal our hurt and tears; forgiveness is the first shot of medicine for that hurt. We can forgive the other person with words or a letter, but that may not do any good in some hardened cases. However, forgiveness does a whole boatload of good in each of us, the hurting and tearful one who must forgive everyone.


Do you have a person or organization who has done to you what will be a lifetime of hurting? Forgive every day! Don't think that you have to come up with the strength to forgive on your own either. Ask God to help you forgive. Plead with our Lord for the strength to forgive. He did it on the cross; he must have the knowledge of how to help us forgive too.


Get up! A beautiful day has begun!


Bucky

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