Forgiven People Forgive

Week 2: When It’s Personal Wednesday

This Week’s Memory Verse

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32 NIV84

Psalm

Psalm 130:3-4 NIV

“If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.”

Proverbs

Proverbs 19:11 NIV

“A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.”

Today’s Thought

The shocking turn in Matthew 18 comes immediately after the king cancels the servant’s enormous debt. The forgiven servant walks out, finds a fellow servant who owes him far less, and demands payment.

He had received mercy, but the mercy he received had not changed the way he treated someone else.

Ephesians 4:32 tells us to forgive one another “just as in Christ God forgave you.” Christian forgiveness does not begin with whether the other person deserves it. It begins with remembering the mercy we have received in Christ. You and I are responsible for how we extend mercy, and specifically because mercy was extended to us.

Forgiveness may be difficult and it may take time, but followers of Jesus cannot separate receiving mercy from learning to extend it. That is what “being a good neighbor” is all about.

Pray

“Father, do not let the mercy I have received stop with me. Give me grace to forgive as You have forgiven me, even when the hurt is personal. Amen.”

Today’s Mercy Step

Ask God to bring one person to mind whom you are struggling to forgive. Do not try to solve everything today. Simply pray, “Jesus, begin changing my heart toward this person.”