FORGIVE

Wed 10-24-12... Sunday 10-28-12

God calls us all to be personally accountable for our own actions... 

As we mature as Christians God is constantly at work in our lives, molding us into what He knows we can be.  

Philippians 1:6  (NLT)

6 And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

As we grow older in our faith we begin to see things differently. Our spirit becomes more sensitive, things that once seemed innocent or acceptable to us, now seem repulsive, some things stand out and offend us so much that they shake us to the core. As we grow in knowledge and understanding, as we find our place among God's people as one of His forgiven children, things become clearer to us. We begin judging situations based on God's ideals and not the worlds ideas of what is acceptable and what is not. Some times  God stretches us in directions we would rather not go, we begin to understand that some of the things we really enjoy are not that healthy for us spiritually.

We do not see where God is taking us, some times the transition can seem painful and hard. But God knows what he is doing. Paul used these words to describe how his perception was changed by God.

1 Corinthians 13:11-12

11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

God knows us, He loves us.... We may not always understand the situations we are going through, but God always has our best outcome in his plan...

Psalm 139:13-14 (MSG)

13-16 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
  you formed me in my mother's womb.
I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
  before I'd even lived one day.

The growth may be painful and we may not understand what is happening, but the God who knows us as completely as Psalm 139 says, knows us well enough to never give us more then we can handle.

1 Corinthians 10:13 (MSG)

13 No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he'll never let you be pushed past your limit; he'll always be there to help you come through it.

The more we mature, the farther we get from our old selves, the easier it becomes to remember what we use to look like. We begin setting standards for others based on where we are spiritually rather then remembering where we came from. Judging others is a tricky thing. We most always make sure that we do not become arrogant, conceded, critical, judgmental or callous towards others, just because they are not in the same situation we are spiritually.

Jesus Himself tells us to be careful about judging others...

Matthew 7:1-5 (NIV)

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

And when Jesus taught us how to pray, he also talked to us about forgiveness...

Matthew 6:9-13 (NLT)

9 Pray like this:

Our Father in heaven,
may your name be kept holy.
10 May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth,
as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today the food we need,
12 and forgive us our sins,
as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
13 And don't let us yield to temptation,
  but rescue us from the evil one.

In comparison to Jesus giving His life up on the cross to deliver us from eternal death, and separation from God our creator, He has asked us to do very little in return. Behave ourselves, have a right attitude, help others, Love Him, Love others as we love ourselves, and forgive as He forgives us. Not a whole lot to ask right?

Someone once told me, if we followed just one of God's rules there would be perfect peace, do you know which rule it is?

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.

There are so many things to say about that alone, but I really wanna focus on the forgiveness part of every thing I've said. The thing is God gave up a lot for us, the Bible tells us that in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God. For an eternity Jesus (the word) had never been separated from  God the Father, then He made man, and we messed up pretty bad. He loved us so he decided on a plan to save us. His planned involved Jesus dying on the cross for us and we all believe that the sacrifice was Jesus' death on the cross. Well it wasn't it, it was the three days of separation from God that followed His death on the cross. What happened before He was put up on that cross was terrible but none of us can imagine what it was like for God the Father and God the son who had been together forever to be separated. This was His sacrifice.

When we are unwilling to forgive, it WOUNDS God! And it wounds us to the core, we may not know we are being damaged but we are.

When we are critical of others we point the finger right back at ourselves. It prevents us from growing any farther as Christians...

God calls us not to judge and to forgive. The ability to understand when we are being overly critical or judgmental is a sign of growth and maturity.

Today I challenge you to write a list of people you need to forgive and another of people you have judged. Rip it up or burn it, give it over to God because he commands us to let this stuff go. If we are holding on to bitterness and resentment then we are offending our creator and our savior.

I know it's hard, this is some thing I have to work on every day. I find myself trying to forgive 5 year old conflicts, they constantly pop back up. But the more I pray about it, the more I force myself to give it up the easier it gets to deal with. Forgiveness is not instantaneous, not being judgmental isn't instantaneous either... The changes we are making in our live, are all a process... God will be faithful to complete His work in us, but we have to move over and let Him get the job done... If we want to grow as Christians then we need to master these human flaws that hold onto us so tightly...