Freedom Fighters

FORGIVE TO BE FORGIVEN

"And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." Matthew 6:12

The one area that so many of us get stuck is in the area of forgiveness.
We tend to remember what we should forget and forget what we should remember! Some of us have held on to stuff in our hearts that should have been long forgiven, and God makes it very plain that an unforgiving heart leads to a bitter heart which will eventually affect every area of our lives.

Dr. Henry Blackaby in his devotional, EXPERIENCING GOD - THE DEVOTIONAL, writes: "Few things are more precious to receive than forgiveness. After carrying the burden of our sin, it is wonderfully freeing to know that the one we have wronged has completely forgiven us.

Jesus told His disciples to ask God for forgiveness every time they prayed. Jesus knew that we would daily incur debts against God, as we inevitably fall short of God's standard. A day does not go by that we do not need to ask God to remove our debt against Him.

Jesus warned that we should expect forgiveness from God as we forgive those who sin against us, for God will forgive us in the same we that we forgive others (Matthew 6:15). God's nature is forgiveness (Exodus 34:6-7). If we are to be His disciples, we must follow HIS example. If God will forgive our most relentless enemy, we can do nothing less. Jesus did not say that certain offenses are unworthy of our forgiveness. We have no biblical excuse for allowing unforgiveness in our hearts.

If you choose to withhold forgiveness from someone, your worship and prayers are futile (Matthew 5:23-24). Ask God to make you aware of those dark corners in your life where you are bearing resentment. A keen awareness of your own need for forgiveness will put the offenses of others in their proper light. Ask God to make you like Christ so that, even when you are being persecuted, you can pray, 'Father, forgive them.'

What about it? Are you holding on to an offense that needs to be forgiven? Are you holding out on forgiving a brother? Get on your knees this morning, guys. Forgiveness = freedom! - Bill Welte is the President and CEO of America's KESWICK.

Today's Scripture Reading: Numbers 26-28; Mark 8

Great Quote: But, you object, a heart like mine can offer Christ so little - at best, so poor and pinched and stingy a hospitality and such meager fare; for I
have nothing worthy of Him to set before Him, only a kind of affection, real enough at times, but which, at others, can and does so easily forget; only a will, quite unreliable, deplorably unstable; only a faith that is the merest shadow of what His real friends mean when they speak about faith, I know. But, there was once a garret up under the roof, a poor, bare place enough. There was a table in it, and there were some benches, and a water-pot; a towel, and a basin in behind the door, but not much else- a bare, "unhomelike" room. But the Lord Christ entered into it. And, from that moment, it became the holiest of all, where souls innumerable ever since have met the Lord God, in High glory, face to face. And, if you give Him entrance to that very ordinary heart of yours, it too He will transform and sanctify and touch with a splendour of glory. Arthur John (A. J.) Gossip