by David Brenneman
"For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions." Matthew 6:14-15
"Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus *said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven." Matthew 18:21-22.
"Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.” The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” Luke 17:3-5.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort." 2 Corinthians 1:3-7.
If indeed we are to forgive as we have been forgiven...and without measure...and without hesitation...should not this apply to those in Christ in need?
Think about that for a moment.
"Then He said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs. So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”" Luke 11:5-13.
We often don't put the two of these thoughts together but in essence they teach the same thing.
While yes we should be careful of being taken advantage of we ought to always listen to the Spirit with regards to helping others. It's not our money, our possessions, our anything that's at stake. It's all the Lord’s.
Our forgiveness also should know no bounds. The Word of God is clear, straight from Jesus, to forgive as often as it takes. Forgiveness is only possible because we too know what it means to be forgiven.
While yes, in both cases, it may appear that we have been taken advantaged of...that's not our concern. We are taught what we must do. The Disciples were so taken aback that they thought they needed more faith to be able to do this.
We don't know what God is doing in the lives of those in our world. We don't know what lies in the hearts of men and women. We are to trust and obey...and leave the consequences to God. Even if we think someone is trying to take advantage of us. Even if we think we have clarity of thought to 'know' what's going on...my Dear Reader...that's being presumptuous. That's us declaring that we know as much as God knows of the hearts of whom we have to do.
These two and our interpretation of them can be as mistakenly used as the often abused, used as an excuse not to, "you shouldn't judge!".
We are to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. We are to judge with righteous judgment. We are to ask, seek, knock when we don't know. We are to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and not to lean on our own understanding. When we lack wisdom we aren't to just go with our gut but to ask of God who gives freely to all who ask.
These are all intertwined. All meant to reveal the character of Christ in us. God's grace and mercy was spelled out in great abundance at the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000. Jesus didn't differentiate between those worthy from those who weren't. He didn't stop being who He was even to Judas Iscariot.
Jesus is to be our example of how a life is to be lived.
Quite often people are gravely mistaken in what it means to be a good steward. Putting limits on helping others, when the Spirit says the needs are genuine, is in Biblical terms being a Pharisee. It's our rules before God's rules. It's our ways before His ways.
If indeed we are praying without ceasing, if indeed we regard what we have as belonging to Christ, if indeed we're living in obedience to God's Word...then my Dear Reader trust God and leave the consequences to Him.
So what if we think we've been wronged. My Dear Friend...it's not us who's been wronged when we obey the Lord...it's the Lord. He will repay.
Our own understanding often hurts our life in Christ because we didn't think to ask Him what to do...we just assume our understanding is enough and go on from there. It seemed right so why question it, right? That's not what I read in the Bible.
We can think we're doing what's right in the eyes of God and still be wrong. Another that goes with obeying God and leaving all the consequences to Him is that anything we hold onto too tightly we will lose.
We indeed may have been blessed but blessings are to flow from those to others...not be kept to ourselves. As we know of people in need we are to pray and share the blessings.
Take a good look at these areas of your life. Forgiveness, of helping others, of what you've done with the blessings bestowed upon you.
Forgive without measure.
Give as you have been given.
Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.
Evaluate others in light of their fruits, not in judgment, but rather in truth.
We don't decide who is worthy of salvation and who is not.
We don't decide who's worthy of forgiveness and who is not.
We don't decide who's worthy of being blessed and who is not.
We cannot show the fruit of the Spirit in our lives if we're not forgiving as we've been forgiven.
We cannot show the fruit of the Spirit if we don't give as we've been given.
We will hinder our growth in Christ if we aren't looking to Jesus first and are not obeying regardless of what we see in others.
Some of what you read today is from Dr. Charles Stanley's Life Principles.
Others are:
God blesses us so that we might bless others.
Trusting God means looking beyond what we see to what God sees.
We are never going to fully understand what we go through in this life and what God's allowed to happen in our lives.
It's on each of us to trust, to obey, and leave the consequences to Him. Help others as He's enabled others to help us.
Love God with our everything and love others.
All NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission.
New American Standard Bible
(C) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation.
A corporation not for profit.
La Habra, CA All rights reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment