I tell you that her many sins are forgiven. This is clear, because she showed great love. People who are forgiven only a little will love only a little. (Luke 7:47 ERV)
REFLECTION
When I committed my life to Jesus Christ my keen awareness of my sin and the gift of forgiveness I received from Him awakened love in my heart. Learning to truly love God, myself and others in the light of Truth has been a journey, which continues still. After I repented (turned away from) obvious external sins, I was shocked to discover a whole range of secret sins in my heart, like pride, unforgiveness, bitterness, self-righteousness and judgement of others. And as I did the hard heart work with a trusted prayer minister and was prayerfully proactive in my local church and private devotions, I believe that the Holy Spirit did (and is doing) a beautiful work in my heart and I began to learn (and I’m still learning) how to deeply and truly forgive … and experience and share true love.
Forgiveness doesn’t mean there are no consequences or boundaries. But, even in navigating consequences and establishing boundaries, we can approach God’s throne of grace and ask our merciful Maker for grace and wisdom, and trust Him to guide and sustain us through the sanctification and transformation process. And I’ve found that even the consequences can be worked for good as we prayerfully seek to learn through it all, and lovingly warn / teach / help others.
No one on this earth is perfect, except our perfect Creator, so let’s set our hearts to pursue Him and learn His higher ways of forgiveness and love, lest we forget that “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”(Romans 3:23 ESV) and that “…God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”(Romans 5:8 NIV).
PRAYER POEM: Forgive
Forgiving Father, help me to freely forgive, and for You and Your cause live.
Clothe me with compassion, kindness, humility, strength and discipline… and hold me back from presumptuous sin.
Gifted with priceless pearls of love from above, my rags of self-righteousness I lay down, together with every man-made crown, and don Christ’s robe of righteousness and work for His renown.
