Forgiveness

Father God, we thank you that the entrance of Your Word brings light. May it change and transform our hearts for Your glory in the name of Jesus, Amen.

Hebrews 3:1 (NKJV)

"Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus Christ."

Amen, thank you LORD.

When you look at Jesus' life and His physical ministry on earth, forgiveness was something that He clearly understood and practiced because He literally lived it. Consider the son of God grows up in a home and at the appointed time of His ministry, He is rejected by His family and the people in His hometown who did not believe in Him (Matthew 13:53-58). This did not deter Jesus as He continued to share the Word of God in Judea. The religious leaders and scribes aggressively opposed the message and His ministry - The one minute the crowd loved Him while He was performing miracles and feeding them with food (John 6:26) and much later on, the people as influenced by the religious leaders were shouting crucify Him (Luke 23:21). The very people He died for are the ones who mocked Him, spat on Him, stripped His clothes off, nailed Him to the cross and crucified Him. Not to forget His disciples, the ones He loved as well and the ones who deeply loved Him. While Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane praying to God fervently, He asked His disciples to stay up with Him praying. Instead, they slept out of too much sorrow (Luke 22:45). So we see that even the people who were closest to Him slept, the one night He most likely needed their support. Jesus was disappointed that they could not stay up for at least an hour to pray with Him during His hour of agony but He was not offended.

All this is to say, friend, there is no betrayal, temptation or pain that you may experience that you will ever experience that Jesus did not experience. This is what makes Jesus a faithful High Priest because He is able to understand these experiences having lived these experiences Himself and yet He still did not sin (Hebrews 4:15).

Considering the above, I believe knowing Jesus Christ as your faithful High Priest is important to guard your heart against offences especially when you go to Him in prayer asking for His grace and help in this area of forgiveness as the Bible tells us He is our intercessor (Hebrews 7:25).

I also believe a revelation of God as your Father is helpful to guard against offences and unforgiveness that may result from unmet expectations across different relationships because you understand that your life starts and ends with God. At times, the natural relationship you may or may not have with your earthly dad may affect the relationship with your heavenly Father. Let us take for instance, king David, who clearly experienced rejection from his dad. When the prophet Samuel came to anoint him, he was the very last option that the dad called. Yet alone, this was after some probing on Samuel's part thanks to the Holy Spirit who kept asking Jesse, David's dad, if these were all the sons he had (1 Samuel 16:11).

A glance at David's life shows us that he chose to receive God's love for him and refused to allow his earthly relationship with his Dad to influence his relationship with God as his loving Father. David prayed in Psalm 27:14, "When my father and mother forsake me, then the LORD will take care of me."

Perhaps you may fall under a category where you grew up with both your parents in a loving home which may position you to better understand and receive God's love better but ultimately, God's love is far superior and has the power to abundantly and supernaturally surpass any other form of love so lean into this love by God's grace.

On the other hand, you may not have grown up with a dad or maybe he was present but unavailable especially in your childhood life. Thankfully, the LORD is a healer and He says Isaiah 49:15, "Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the son of her womb?  Even if she could forget, I will not forget you." These verses portray God's supernatural ability to be a Father and mother to His children who is present in every situation. When you have this revelation in your heart that God is literally in charge of your life and He will not mismanage it as your loving Father and mother, it opens your heart to receive His love and goodness. This will in turn enable you to forgive and release people who may have knowingly or unknowingly hurt you in the past just as Jesus showed us with God's help.

As a child who is born of God, you also have it in you to choose forgiveness because Christ, the hope of glory lives in you (Colossians 1:23). The LORD in Hebrews 10:17 says, "...their sins and lawless deeds I will remember no more." This tells us that if God has the ability to forgive lawless deeds and forget them (including your wrong & mistakes), His children who are also born of God have the grace to do just like your Father God and in 1 John 5:3, we reminded that God's commandments are not burdensome.

Prayer: Father, thank you for the grace to forgive and release people from my heart. Thank you Abba for the grace to show mercy as You have shown me mercy. Thank you that You are my Father and mother who knows and every detail of my life is under Your full control. I choose to lean in and experience greater dimensions of Your love for me as eye has not seen nor ear heard what You have prepared for those that love You. Thank you Father that I live my life with this understanding as I continue to walk in love with everyone just like Jesus did in the name of Jesus, Amen. Thank you LORD.

Invitation to salvation: If you would like to be born again into God's Kingdom, that is saved and have a personal relationship with God as Your Father and you as His child by receiving His Son, Jesus as Lord and Savior of your life, I invite you to say this confession with me:

"I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that; Jesus Christ, the Son of God came in a human body to die for my sins so that I could have a new life where I am dead to sin and alive to God. I repent of my past sins and enter the Kingdom of light where I choose relationship with Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour and with God as my loving Father today and forever." AMEN.

Congratulations, YOU'VE BEEN REDEEMED by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. To the glory of the Almighty God. Amen. In case you do not already, please join a church community and get water baptized!