Daily Devotions
As Christ Has Forgiven Us
Reading for April 19th: 1 Kings 18-20
Weekly reading for April 19-25: Acts 6-10
And as they were stoning Stephen... he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them."
Acts 7:59-60
Nothing is harder than forgiveness. The longer I live, the more I am convinced of this. We would rather do just about anything than to forgive.
There are different levels of forgiveness. All forgiveness is not the same. There are various degrees of difficulty. Sometimes forgiveness is easy because the crime was either committed ignorantly or unintentionally. Sometimes we can easily forgive because the injury is minor. It is easy to move on and move past the offense because it cost us very little.
But then there are times when forgiveness is costly; costly because the debt is heavy (whether physically, emotionally, or both). We are weary and heavy laden. It may not be seventy times seven, but it feels that way. The wounds are deep and painful. The pain is intensified when we know the attack against us is premeditated.
But the Scripture is clear when it tells us, "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another..." If the Scripture stopped there we could easily rationalize an unforgiving spirit in some cases. We could dismiss some of our enemies by saying it is simply too costly to forgive them.
But the Scripture doesn't stop there: "forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." (Ephesians 4:32)
Father God, remind us of the cost of our forgiveness that we might forgive one another in the same way.
