Torturous Forgiveness

Parable of the Unforgiving Debtor
21 Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”

22 “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!

23 “Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. 24 In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. 25 He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.

26 “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’27 Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.

28 “But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.

29 “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. 30 But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.

31 “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. 32 Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.
35 “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”

Matthew 18:21-35 NLT

This is a story that completely encompasses the TORTURE of forgiveness. 

If you're like me you have struggled at least once with forgiveness. I had never really had any friends. The friends I did have I categorized as "friendlies", we were more than acquaintances but not really friends. Then I had met someone who became a great friend! Stuff happened and I felt betrayed. I knew I had to forgive this person, but I couldn't! How dare they betray me like this?! To this day I still struggle with forgiving this person.

If you look closely in verse 34, after the king found out about the servant sending the other guy to prison, he sent him to be TORTURED until he had paid his debt. The catch here is really in verse 35 when Jesus tells us that that's what God will do to us, TORTURE, if we don't forgive others.

If you have ever struggled with forgiving someone then you know that in the process of holding that grudge you become bitter and angry. You start to hate. It feels like that person is torturing you!! 

This scripture proves that this is how God set it up. Why would he do that?!

Take a  moment right here. Stop. Close your eyes. Think. Think about all of the bad things or not great things you have done. Think about the mistakes you have made. Think about the times where you've done anything that did not bring glory to God. Every time you've fibbed or bent the truth. Every time you took even a penny that didn't belong to you. Every time you've laughed at a joke that made fun of a person. Every time you've done anything less than perfect. 

That's a lot, right?

Well God not only forgave you, he had EVERYTHING you've ever done, not done or thought about put on His son. When his son, Jesus, carried all of that God turned his back on him, because God hates sin and cannot look at it! ~If you are a parent think about how hard it would be for you to turn your back on your child... There was a woman on the news this morning who was in trouble with the law for harboring a fugitive, her son...~ Then Jesus died because of your sin & mine. Ultimately Jesus defeated death, hell and the grave. He is alive and in heaven with God again.

It's because God put his son in our place that we are free to be forgiven. Make sure you're catching that God didn't just forgive us, he gave EVERYTHING so that we can be forgiven.

So if he is willing to go through all of that and forgive us, why shouldn't we forgive someone else - no matter what they did. No one could ever hurt us the way we have hurt our God and yet we are forgiven every time we ask.

So don't let yourself be tortured. Jesus already went through it for you. Forgive that person. Every day forgive them until you aren't upset anymore.

~Awaken Us~

Brenna Stanford

Forget the "Act Right"

Matthew 9: 9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector's booth. "Follow me and be my disciple," Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.

Forget the "Act Right"!

So many people, Christians or not, have trouble understanding this. I recently had a conversation with someone who has been raised in church their whole life. They informed me that for the next 60 days they were going to try what they called "clean living" to see if anything changed. I asked them if they were just going to try to act right or if they were going to try a relationship with Jesus.

They were baffled, there was a difference, a separation? I went on to share this scripture and told them that if they just try to act right then they will end up bitter and resentful and it probably won't work. You see they wanted to set these super high goals that restricted the of things that they enjoy to see if that made them happier. That's a set up for failure.

Instead they need to be trying to build a relationship with Jesus, take their 60 days and talk to, listen to and let Jesus love them without worrying about what they are or are not doing. Or what Jesus might tell them they can or can't do. In the scripture (the Bible - our way of getting to know God, Jesus & the Holy Spirit) Jesus tells Matthew - a tax collector, who in biblical times meant a crook! - to follow him. That was it!! Jesus didn't tell Matthew  he had to quit robing people or that he had to sell everything and pay back all the people he took from. No, he simply said follow me, in other words be my friend.

When we form a friendship with Jesus we are getting to know him, through that we fall in love with him. Because of our loving Jesus and wanting to please him changes in our life do occur. That's why scripture says that we are known by our fruit - our actions. But NO WHERE in scripture does it say that we must act right to follow Jesus. Verse 11 -13 goes on to tell how the religious people were ticked off because Jesus was with people who didn't act right. Then Jesus responded to them by saying that he wasn't here for the people who think that they act right, but for the ones who now they don't.

So today & everyday after, FORGET THE ACT RIGHT!!! Just love Jesus!!

~Awaken Us~
Brenna Stanford