Good day Steemians, Welcome to another wonderful day that the Lord has made. Today I bring to your table the issue of forgiveness
I recently had a conflict with a friend of mine. He had hurt me badly and I never wanted to talk to him again. I never wanted to see his face in fact. I held a very strong resentment for him for what he had done to me.
While going through my daily bible study today, i stumbled on this passage:
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Ephesians 4: 32
And it struck me real hard because I knew damn right that God was talking directly to me. God forgave us all of our sins. Man disobeyed and disappointed Him immersely when Adam and Eve decided to eat the forbidden fruit. However, inspite all of this, He still sent His only begotten son Jesus to die for us. Imagine how great a sacrifice that was, even for Him. But he did it in order to forgive us and redeem us back to Him.
Jesus told a parable in Matthew 18:21-24:40 about an unmerciful servant
This was in response to a question Peter asked him saying
Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?
And Jesus answered him saying
I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
Jesus went ahead to tell him a story of a servant who had just been forgiven of a large debt he owed the king, who thereafter leaving the king's presence went his way to beat and lock up his fellow servant that owed him that which was much lesser than what he had just been forgiven of.
Many of us are like that wicked servant. We were washed clean by the blood of Jesus which served as payment for the grave iniquities that were all over us. We were forgiven of our very mighty transgressions, yet we fail to be merciful to our fellow servants for the little wrongs they do against us;.
We hold grudges and vow never to forgive those who offended us. But we've forgotten that we lied the three days ago. We forget that we stole last week...
BUT GOD FORGAVE US!
In like manner, brethren forgive your neighbour. Forgive your brother/sister. Again and again and yet again! Even seventy seven (77) times a day isn't enough! Because Jesus did even much more for us.
Thanks for reading. I hope you were blessed!
