Matthew 6:14-15 “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

This is an extraordinarily important passage that is all too often ignored. We all want to be forgiven, but we don’t want to forgive. Jesus made it absolutely clear that it doesn’t work that way. This is where everyone’s sense of justice is tested. We get incensed when we think we are not being treated fairly, yet we excuse ourselves when the shoe is on the other foot. Likewise, we demand perfection of others, while asking them to excuse our “human foibles.” There are many things the Bible is repeatedly very clear about, and one of the most important of those is that everyone sins. When we are guilty before God, we have no leeway to not forgive people for the things they do against us! A major reason crime reports are so popular is that we like to feel righteous in comparison to the depravity of others. The problem with that is, if you’ve violated God’s laws at any point, you are a guilty sinner, period. We love to rank sins, not because they are of different severity, though they are, but because we want to put our own on the light end of the scale. Again, that ignores the reality that sin is sin, and the wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23) To appropriate the atonement that Christ provided on the cross, we have to be willing to forgive others.

This is in many ways a very hard Word, and many people choke on it. I am not to draw back from proclaiming it, but I must always do so in love, liberating rather than condemning. Above all, I must practice forgiveness myself. As I am frequently reminded, Japanese have linguistic reasons for confusing forgiveness with excusing, but they aren’t the only ones who do that. I’ve been told that the only way I will be able to get the concept of Biblical forgiveness through to people is to model it, and the person who told me that has just given me an ample opportunity to do that! I need to trust and praise God, being active in my forgiveness and praying for those who seem unable to forgive me for whatever, even when I don’t know what that “whatever” is. Here too, I need to rest, relax, and rejoice in God my Savior, trusting Him with outcomes and rewards and asking Him to allow me to see things from His perspective.

Father, thank You for yesterday and all it held. You did some awesome things. Keep me from allowing what felt negative to me to overshadow the way You are progressing Your plans for this church, this city and this nation. I pray that I would be active in my faithfulness and trust, letting Your peace fill me and protect me from the onslaughts of the enemy against my mind and heart. May I be fully yielded to You as an instrument of Your love, grace, and mercy, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!