Wednesday March 9, 2011

Theme: Enemy Love

Weekend Music links on iTunes: All to You - Lincoln Brewster, Happy Day - Tim Hughes, Hosanna - Hillsong, Attention - Know Hope Collective

Think: Our home group last night talked about forgiveness, and just as home group is designed to do, it brought some people to mind that needed a little attention in that area. As a group, we talked about the hard work of forgiveness for the neighbor who complains about you to the housing association, the kid who broke into your car and stole your GPS, the over-active or under-active grandparent, the person at work who lied about you, the child who embarrassed you, and your spouse who spent too much money last week.

My tendency is to judge someone else when they hurt me, saying, “How could they?” But my prone-to-judgment mind is tempered by, “There go I, but for the grace of God.” That means that I acknowledge that I’m capable of the most despicable sins, just like anyone. Looking back on our conversation last night, I can see that any one of us could have been the person on the other side- the one who caused the hurt.

Jesus knows this. He taught, “Yes, if you forgive others for their sins, your Father in heaven will also forgive you for your sins.  But if you don’t forgive others, your Father in heaven will not forgive your sins.” Never mincing words, Jesus encouraged forgiveness of others because of how desperate we are for it ourselves.

Jesus, just a couple of verses later points out that we are most accustomed to seeing the speck in our neighbor’s eye and over look the plank of wood in our own. With this human tendency in mind, let’s be quick to offer forgiveness knowing that forgiveness will come back to us.

Pray: Lord, please show me the truth of my actions and help me in my quest to forgive others. 

Do: Write down one person you need to forgive and one action step that you will take to achieve forgiveness.

The eDevotional is written each week by a team of volunteers from Timberlake Church.