[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Monday, June 16, 2014

[Paul]

Hello and good day to you all wherever you reside in this world.  I hope that, by God's matchless grace and His providential care, that you are all doing well today.

Judging by the importance of the subject in today's article, I guess the Lord would have me collect more written pieces on the following subject than any other.  The subject in question is forgiveness, and, in fact, Ruth Andrews graces our screens, Braille displays and screen readers with that particular title, rendered as follows:

Over the years I had been in Bible studies and heard sermons on forgiveness.  The subject was well covered, and I had forgiven anyone I needed to forgive--or so I thought.

After one particular study, perhaps my heart was ready to be tuned into God's voice.  Whatever the catalyst, God clearly showed me that I had not really dealt with an incident from long ago.

A woman in the church I attended and I had a dispute over a matter that we both felt strongly about.  Instead of talking the situation out with this woman, I got angry and quit a position I filled at church.  A friend said I should just forget it and back off.  I reasoned that this woman (with whom I had the dispute) was the pastor's wife and had been a Christian much longer than I had.  I could not win.  Therefore, I told myself I would forgive, and I buried the incident.  As a result, I unconsciously saw myself as a pushed-around victim.  This bred resentment and bitterness toward this woman.  I lost contact with her many years ago, and she probably has forgotten the dispute.

However, it was time to face the fact that my bitterness and resentment had hurt nobody but me.  This woman likely has not changed her thinking, and I continue to believe I was right.  I know now I should have sat down with her and talked about how we both felt.

Part of the problem was my timidity and not standing up for what is right.  I listened to a well-meaning friend and did nothing.  It was too late for confronting that woman and the subject of the dispute but not for putting to rest my long buried unforgiveness.

Holding a grudge is a waste of time and energy, and I no longer wanted to carry around this extra baggage.  To God I confessed my sins of unforgiveness and holding a grudge and asked Him to forgive me.  I asked God to free me from a past incident I could not change.  A burden was lifted.  It mattered not one bit who was right or wrong.  To hold a grudge against another is to be controlled by that person and what happened so long ago.

We have to make a choice.  Who will be in control of my thoughts and actions, man or God? Personally, I would prefer to be controlled by God, who has forgiven me so much.


And there you have Ruth's article which I trust was food for thought.  It reminded me of the parable that Jesus told of the debtor and his master.  The servant owed his master a great deal of money.  Coming to his lord he pleaded with him to forgive the debt, which he did.  However one of his fellow servants owed him a much smaller amount of money, and the first servant demanded payment.  When their master heard it, he understandably was infuriated and had Servant One put in prison.  Then Jesus said paraphrasically at the end of this story that our heavenly Father would not forgive us unless we forgave a brother or sister "from our heart." Now not being a Bible scholar myself, would the phrase "from our heart" mean the idea of completely forgetting a wrong done to us? It is my gut feeling, based on nothing in particular, that this is what our Lord meant.  Anyway any comments on this would be welcome.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Lord willing, tomorrow there will be another Daily Thought article for you to consider and ponder.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul