All in Forgiving
God is indescribably great and we are so utterly lost without His love and grace. We realize our faults and shortcomings, but are we bold enough to compare ourselves with the magnificence of His glory, or the perfection of Jesus? Would we faint at the very sight of them?
In the day of Jesus, like today, a person could argue against Jesus, and that sin would be forgiven him if he repented, believed, and asked for forgiveness. Saul was certainly guilty of speaking out against Christ in those days when he persecuted the Christians, but later, after having met Jesus on the road to Damascus, he was converted, and his sin of having spoken and acted out against Jesus the Christ was forgiven. For those among us today who have spoken out against Christ there is also hope, forgiveness, and redemption. No matter how bitter your words, or actions, might have been, the hand of Christ remains extended to you. Forgiveness and eternity are just a prayer away.
When we forgive someone who has wronged us do we actually forgive them as we should? Oh, we might say the words, hug one another, kiss, shake hands, and even shed tears, but do we put our differences completely behind us? Do we forgive, and then choose not to remember their iniquities; putting them out of our minds, never to be thought of again? Do we separate ourselves from them as God does?
We place our love, and confidence, in the people and things around us, but we need to be careful when we do so. Things will fail us, and people will desert us, but the Lord our God will never leave us, and His love through Jesus Christ will shine on us in the darkest of hours... bringing eternity into us as He comes to abide in us.