Reflecting God - Embrace Holy Living from Wordaction of The Global Church of the Nazarene Publishing House in Kansas City, Missouri, United States "Give Yourself a Gift-Forgive" by Debbie Goodwin for Tuesday, 3 January 2017 with Scripture: Luke 11:1-13

Reflecting God - Embrace Holy Living from Wordaction of The Global Church of the Nazarene Publishing House in Kansas City, Missouri, United States "Give Yourself a Gift-Forgive" by Debbie Goodwin for Tuesday, 3 January 2017 with Scripture: Luke 11:1-13
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"Give Yourself a Gift-Forgive" by Debbie Goodwin
Luke 11:1 One time Yeshua was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of the talmidim said to him, “Sir, teach us to pray, just as Yochanan taught his talmidim.” 2 He said to them, “When you pray, say:
‘Father,
May your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come.
3 Give us each day the food we need.
4 Forgive us our sins, for we too forgive everyone who has wronged us.
And do not lead us to hard testing.’”
5 He also said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend; and you go to him in the middle of the night and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6 because a friend of mine who has been travelling has just arrived at my house, and I have nothing for him to eat.’ 7 Now the one inside may answer, ‘Don’t bother me! The door is already shut, my children are with me in bed — I can’t get up to give you anything!’ 8 But I tell you, even if he won’t get up because the man is his friend, yet because of the man’s hutzpah he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
9 “Moreover, I myself say to you: keep asking, and it will be given to you; keep seeking, and you will find; keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who goes on asking receives; and he who goes on seeking finds; and to him who continues knocking, the door will be opened.
11 “Is there any father here who, if his son asked him for a fish, would instead of a fish give him a snake? 12 or if he asked for an egg would give him a scorpion? 13 So if you, even though you are bad, know how to give your children gifts that are good, how much more will the Father keep giving the Ruach HaKodesh from heaven to those who keep asking him!”
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Is it possible that God’s forgiveness is not only the gift that opens the door to eternal life but opens every door to relationships on earth? Jesus never asks anyone to do what He has not done. He always offers forgiveness to heal a wound that can be healed no other way. He asks His disciples to follow the same pattern. He doesn’t want us to offer forgiveness based on personal preference or fairness, but because He proved that freedom and abundant life waits on the other side.
Forgiveness offers the gift of freedom not available any other way. It is freedom from having to carry anger, freedom from the desire to make someone else pay for a wound that only God can heal, freedom that returns to God all judgment. It is the gift that rights the relationship on your side, whether or not it means anything to the other person.
Just think how many people Jesus has offered His forgiveness to who have not accepted it. He never says, “Well that’s that. I’ll never do that again.” He just keeps on offering. So should we.
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Hymn for Today: "Eternal Life" by Saint Francis of Assisi
1. “Make me a channel of your peace,
Where there is hatred let me bring your love,
Where there is injury your pardon Lord,
And where there’s doubt true faith in you.
2. Make me a channel of your peace,
Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope,
Where there is darkness, only light,
And where there’s sadness, ever joy.
3. O Master grant that I may never seek,
So much to be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my soul.
4. Make me a channel of your peace,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
In giving of ourselves that we receive.
And in dying that we’re born to eternal life.
5. O Master grant that I may never seek,
So much to be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
And to love as to love with all my soul.
6. Make me a channel of your peace,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
In giving of ourselves that we receive.
And in dying that we’re born to eternal life.
Chorus: Make me a channel of your peace.”
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Thought for Today: Colossians 3:13 Bear with one another; if anyone has a complaint against someone else, forgive him. Indeed, just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must forgive.
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Please Pray: That many people in Italy will come to know Yeshua the Messiah and receive the fullness of the Ruach HaKodesh.
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