Taking It to Work:
When we are given something of value from someone generous, we often feel a strong desire to give back to them, something they would appreciate as much as we appreciated what was given to us. It is a natural reaction for most of us, and a good one, one that reflects an appreciative heart, something we all should have.
Well, we have been given something that without some deep, honest contemplation, we can’t even begin to value its worth. It’s something that we didn’t deserve, and probably still don’t, yet it is poured out on our behalf everyday, even as we drop the same ball, over and over. God’s love in action: His forgiveness.
There is no attribute of God more amazing to me than his unrelenting forgiveness, for those of us who follow Him.
He is a Marvelous Creator, and I am in awe of all He has done. He’s the Author of life itself, a force, or a spark, or whatever it is that divides something alive from something that is dead. Even those most advanced in the medical field of our time, they still don’t understand how to bring something to life. He is also all-knowing, all-powerful and perfect without flaw. These are unbelievable, almost unfathomable attributes, but still, nothing amazes me more than His forgiveness.
Why? Because with all of His power, with all the knowledge of me and of you, in all of His perfection, with His control over allowing us to take the next breath, He chooses not to pull the plug. He chooses not even to punish us as we deserve. Maybe some rebuke and unpleasant discipline every once in a while, but never to the extent of what He is justified to do. And that’s the part that amazes me. He has all the power to smite me, and all the reason to do so, but instead, he offers forgiveness paid in advance, by His blood even while I’m still stumbling about in various levels of disobedience.
His ability to withhold, and His seemingly infinite ability to forgive is one of the greatest gifts we could ever be given, bar none.
So how do we give something back to Him that would even come close? How possibly can we return forgiveness to a perfect God who has nothing in which to be forgiven? Well, He tells us, quite directly in His Word: “Forgive others, as I have forgiven you.”
We are heading back into the workplace again today, and then home. Is there anyone in either of these places whom you need to forgive? Not because you feel like it, or because they’re sorry and won’t repeat the offense, they probably will, but because the Lord has asked you to, as return of love to Him.
Remember, we are most obedient in this area when we are thoroughly grateful for our own forgiveness. On the drive in, or on the drive home, contemplate what you truly deserved, and then thank Him, as you extend your own forgiveness, to others that don’t really deserve it, as His Word works through you today.
1Sam 2:6 (NIV) – The LORD brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up.
Ps 103:10 (ESV) – He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
Ps 86:5 (NKJ) – For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.
Rom 5:8 (ESV) -God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Eph 4:32 (ESV) – Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you
Matt 18:32-33 (ESV) – Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’
Listening to the Holy Spirit (Rhema):
Remember not the past as the structure of the present, for to those in My Name, there is now new life. Forgotten is the past. As one day of sun is not determined by the last, you too are not determined of your past. The Spirit renews, bringing life to death, good from pain, strength from weakness. As the seasons change the earth, so My Spirit renews those in My care. Forgiveness flows, covering wounds to self and others. I have seen all, and know all, and for those who ask in repentant mind and strength of faith, they shall receive the newness and breathe again. To others, you must also grant this gift. To those who hurt you, they too are to receive what you have received, that again they are made new in the eyes of those made new. As forgiveness flows into your basin, so too it flows out into the basin of others, for as you have been forgiven, to others also forgive. Impatience and anger are the festering of he who knows not forgiveness. Those who curse others, feel cursed themselves, but he who knows the forgiveness of his own, in him, also will be forgiveness – fruit of My fruit. Give life as I have renewed your own.
