Today's Reading: Matthew 18: 21-35
**For a simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please click this link: Subject Shifting Devotion.pdf.
Please click this link to read Matthew 18: 21-35
Bible Study
This passage takes reconciliation to a deeper level and you really need sometime to read, think, meditate, digest and pray about it. It is very, very important to you if you want to stay alive and in good physical and spiritual health.
N.T. Wright gives a wonderful explanation:
Every time you accuse someone else, you accuse yourself. Every time you forgive someone else, though, you pass on a drop of water out of the bucketful that God has already given you. From God's point of view, the distance between being ordinarily sinful(what we all are) and extremely sinful (what the people we don't like seem to be) is like the distance between London and Paris seen from the point of view of the sun.
The key thing as I have already said, is not that one should therefore swallow all resentment and 'forgive and forget' as though nothing had happened. The key thing is that one should never, ever give up making forgiveness and reconciliation one's goal. If confrontation has to happen, as it often does, it must always be with forgiveness in mind, never revenge.
But underneath that there is another lesson, more subtle perhaps but equally important. Why does Jesus solemnly say, in the last verse, that those who refuse to forgive will themselves be refused forgiveness?
The reason is that forgiveness is more like the air in your lungs. There's only room for you to inhale the next lungful when you've just breathed out the previous one. If you insist on withholding it, refusing to give someone else the kiss of life they may desperately need, you won't be able to take any more in yourself, and you will suffocate very quickly.
Peter's question and Jesus' answer say it all (verses 21-22). If you're still counting how many times you've forgiven someone, you're not really forgiving them at all, but simply postponing revenge. 'Seventy times seven' is a typical bit of Jesus' teasing. What he means, of course, is 'don't even think about counting; just do it'.
Today perhaps we have the longest copy and paste message from N.T. Wright, I think it is necessary because it will certainly helps you to really forgive those you cannot forgive. Do you think so?
Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage of scripture we have just read. Offer this time up to Jesus as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe"
Spiritual Journal
What I heard from Jesus today is: Forgive them, just do it!
What I received from Jesus today is such a relieve to me that I can forgive some people that I cannot forgive before today. It is not easy to try your best to help and love other people but in return is misunderstanding, accusation and attack! It hurts me a lot! But, today Jesus helps me to be able to forgive and I am free, so free!
Something happened wonderfully tonight as a confirmation from the Lord to me to forgive. My mother called me from Hong Kong telling me that she, my sister and my brother will have dinner with two of our relatives today in Hong Kong. We did not have any chance even to stand together for the past 45 years! 45 years of hatred will be removed in one day, today!
Why let Satan use you as an instrument to spread misunderstanding, hatred, accusation and destruction? I have seen so many broken families and divided churches all around me including my own family and my own church, why? Why not be an ambassador of reconciliation(2 Cor 5:20) rather then a separator, killer and destroyer?
How about you? Do you have some people who have hurt you badly that you think you can never forgive? Today is a good time for you to forgive them!
And Jesus wants me to tell you now, "Forgive them! Just do it!"
Dear Lord Jesus,
Help us to be able to really forgive those whom we are not able to forgive. Lead us to have the heart and compassion to just do it. Thank you Lord, thank you for this freedom. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
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