Forgiveness

Much of my growth over the last year and a half has centered around this word. The other day at church, a dear friend of mine shared a humbling and convicting Truth with me. It speaks to a lot of the same things I have been learning this year, but it has also challenged me this week to think even more deeply about grace and about forgiveness. I thought I would share it here.

We often find ourselves in the difficult situation of waiting for someone to apologize for their wrong-doing. Sometimes it takes an hour. Sometimes it takes a day. Sometimes it takes weeks, months, years. Sometimes we may never hear that apology or see that remorse. My friend reminded me to remember the cross - specifically that when Jesus willingly died for me, I was not kneeling before him pleading for forgiveness. I was mocking, spitting, and hating the One who would save me from my sin.

"For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die - but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." -Romans 5:8

This is where I can draw my strength to repeatedly and genuinely forgive children who display months of hateful behavior with no glimmer of remorse. This is where I can draw my strength to repeatedly and genuinely forgive biological mothers who have a lengthy criminal record, no sense of personal accountability, and no feeling of remorse for the trauma they inflict on their own children. I'm preaching to myself here, can you tell? Where I have difficulty forgiving, I need to put myself right back at the feet of the cross once again and reject the temptation to think of myself any more highly than those who wrong me or wrong those who are important to me. Apart from His grace, I was an enemy of God, hostile in mind, doing evil deeds (Colossians 1:21), and He died in my place on a cross while I laughed in His face. 

Lord, help me to forgive those who do evil in this world while laughing in my face. Help me to trust You, the Sovereign Judge. Help me to be faithful in my job as a parent and as a believer. Use me to admonish others and to help weed out the evil that pervades the hearts of my kids and the hearts of those around me, but help me first to forgive them fully and love them sacrificially.