By Andrew Williams – December 7,2021
Be on your guard. If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and comes back to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
Luke 17:3-4 HCSB
Good morning fellow disciples.
When we look at the dynamics of relationships, repentance and forgiveness go hand in hand. Have you been hurt or sinned against? Have you hurt someone or sinned against them?
When they or you repent of that sin then the obvious and expected response from the hurt party is that of forgiveness. Sometimes we may not feel like doing it but as Jesus says, “you must forgive”! Jesus also says that if we don’t forgive, then God the Father in heaven will not forgive us.
When we hold unforgiveness towards others, it poisons our relationship with them and God. When we don’t repent of our sins it keeps us out of right relationship with God.
We all have sinned against God and are in need of forgiveness. God has stated clearly in His word that He is willing to forgive us, if we will repent of our sins and turn to Him.
Will you do that today? Will you also pray that your family will seek forgiveness for their sins, and extend forgiveness to those who have wronged them?
Our prayer today is from King Solomon:
Hear the petition of Your servant and Your people Israel, which they pray toward this place. May You hear in Your dwelling place in heaven. May You hear and forgive.
When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy, because they have sinned against You, and they return to You and praise Your name, and they pray and plead with You for mercy in this temple, may You hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel.
May You restore them to the land You gave their ancestors.
When the skies are shut and there is no rain, because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and praise Your name, and they turn from their sins because You are afflicting them, may You hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants and Your people Israel, so that You may teach them the good way they should walk in. May You send rain on Your land that You gave Your people for an inheritance.
When there is famine on the earth, when there is pestilence, when there is blight, mildew, locust, or grasshopper, when their enemy besieges them in the region of their fortified cities, when there is any plague or illness, whatever prayer or petition anyone from Your people Israel might have — each man knowing his own afflictions and spreading out his hands toward this temple — may You hear in heaven, Your dwelling place, and may You forgive, act, and repay the man, according to all his ways, since You know his heart, for You alone know every human heart, so that they may fear You all the days they live on the land You gave our ancestors.
1 Kings 8:30, 33-40 HCSB