Monday // 6th January 2025
Forgive like Christ forgave!
Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:32 MSG
Forgiveness is possible, but it won’t always feel possible. Forgiveness often feels like one of the most maddening instructions from the Lord. It’s hard to give. It’s amazing to get. But when we receive it freely from the Lord and refuse to give it, something heavy starts to form in our souls. It’s the weight of forgiveness that wasn’t allowed to pass through causes trouble in the soul.
Forgiveness isn’t something hard, neither we have the option to do or not do. Our part in forgiveness isn’t one of desperation. It is not fighting through the irritation and wrestling down the indignation. When we wrongly think about forgiveness as being the outcome of feelings then we will never be able to authentically give the kind of forgiveness Jesus gave us. Therefore, forgiveness must proceeds from leaning into what Jesus has already done, which allows His grace to flow freely through us.
God knew all of this. So He made a way not dependent on our strength. A forgiving way. A way to grab on to Jesus’ outstretched arms, bloody from crucifixion and dripping with redenmption. He forgives what we could never be good enough to make right. And makes a way for us to simply cooperate with His work of forgiveness–for us to receive forgiveness and for us to give it.
Your brother in Christ,
Apostle Ashok Martin