Forgiveness

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Ephesians 4:32 says, “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.”

     I was recently writing to someone about a previous devotion and made reference to forgiveness in that note.  When I went on Facebook to set up the page, I noticed one of those short sayings referring to forgiveness that one of my friends had posted. A lot of people seem to have a difficulty with forgiveness as a lot of people are getting stepped on by other people.  In light  of the discussion and the posting, I decided to put my  two cents out there also in regard to forgiveness.  

     We seem to have developed the philosophy that says, “I will forgive you but I won’t forget it.”  We may find ourselves saying, “You can hurt me once and I will forgive you but you will never get a chance to do it again.”    The guideline for forgiveness is mentioned down just a few more words where it says, “...as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”  Peter asked the question on how many times he should forgive someone, seven times?”  The answer was seven times seventy.  Why, that equates to 490 times for the same offense.  In other words, there is no boundary as to how many times we should forgive someone but that is not in our human nature to forgive someone that many times.  We want to draw the line at twice and that’s it.  We would brand the person with “Oh he is a ‘push over.’”  Or we would say that everyone just walks all over them.  Humility was not a thing to be grasped for in the culture of the day nor is it today.  In this state, you can get a license plate   with a rattlesnake on it and the words, “Don’t tread on me.”  That wasn’t the attitude of Christ on the cross.  They did tread on Him.  They spit on Him.  They plucked out His beard.  The beat Him until His blood flowed down His back.  They put a crown of thorns on His head and then they nailed Him to a wooden cross and He died that day for your sin and for mine and for the sin of the whole world until He said, “It is finished.”  Ephesians 4:32 tells us how to forgive now it is  up to you.  Praise God today that He forgives.