Forgive without Keeping Track

23 Saturday Apr 2016

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Devotional

Tags

490 times, can't keep track of offenses, can't keep track of times you forgave, complete forgiveness, complete peace, forgive offenders, forgiven people forgive people, forgiveness, free soul, godly wisdom, no toxicity, seven times seventy, spiritual completeness, spiritual peace, spiritual perfection, spiritual truth, trespasses

When someone cruelly offends us, many times we do not forgive that person like we are commanded. Because we also have stored in our minds the memory of this person’s hurtful offense, often during heated conversations with that person we have chosen not to forgive we end up throwing that unforgiven hurtful act back in the face of the person we will not forgive.

Christ says that when we do not forgive EACH trespass someone commits against us, God will not forgive us of our wrongdoings and sins that we ask Him in prayer to forgive. Our Lord not only teaches us that we are to forgive but also teaches us that we are to forgive seven times seventy. Since seven is the number of spiritual perfection, completeness and peace, this spiritual truth means the seven times seventy or four hundred and ninety times we need to forgive someone for an offense symbolizes the perfection of forgiveness—the sense of complete forgiveness.

Now a person hardly ever commits the same offense against us four hundred and ninety times; however, we easily can replay an offense four hundred and ninety times in our minds. This spiritual truth is why with complete forgiveness (seven times seventy or four hundred and ninety times), the Holy Spirit in us can help us keep our minds from rerunning an offense over and over again. In other words, Christ’s seven times seventy complete forgiveness keeps us from continually remembering the offense, because we continually are forgiving the offender. Therefore, forgiving people four hundred and ninety times helps us to do so without consciously keeping track of how many times we either have forgiven a person or have been hurt by his or her mean actions. The point here is that Christ’s seven times seventy forgiveness command teaches and reminds us that forgiven people also have to forgive people.

Are we holding on to unforgiveness? If so, let us completely forgive the person or persons so that God will continue to forgive us, without keeping count of our trespasses or how often He has forgiven us. Shalom.

“And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” ~ Mk 11:25

Keep it real…Live it out…Watch it work!

~ from Keeping It Real: Daily Renewing the Mind—my one-year devotional

Golden Rule Exemplified

05 Tuesday Apr 2016

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Devotional

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Christlikeness, dignity, ethical, frame, genuine, Golden Rule, Gospel of Christ, hang, holy, illustrate via daily living, Jesus Christ's teachings, live, love, moral, Moses' teachings, quote, respect, righteous, skywrite, substance, sum, the Law and the Prophets

It used to be that many public elementary schools’ principals would have the golden rule hanging on a wall in their offices. Today, it is unlikely that we would find many school principals in any public or private setting who have any Bible Scriptures hanging on their walls.

It used to be that schoolteachers – both saved and unsaved – would quote and teach the significance of the golden rule, whenever they had to reprimand misguided children who bullied or harassed others. Nowadays, it is unlikely that we would find many Christians or nonbelievers who are educators in today’s schools that quote and teach the importance of any biblical principles, even though the number of misguided children needing to be reprimanded is far greater than it used to be.

Without a doubt, the do unto others as you would have them do unto you principle has become the “I’m going to get you got FIRST” declaration for many adults. Consequently, children, who follow in their parents’ “I’m going to get you got FIRST” footsteps, now bring guns to school, and they now disrespect adults and their peers. They also curse, rob, lie, and kill on the same level as some of this world’s most hardened criminals. The fact that moral standards are not being enforced in their schools, homes, and communities is the fundamental reason why more and more of today’s young people are embracing – as their own way of life – the ungodly behaviors they observe in movies, on television programs, in their homes, in their schools, in the streets, in their churches, and so forth.

Based on this world’s current state of affairs, we who believe in the Lord’s golden rule need to reclaim our young people. Let us save our babies from killing babies. Let us teach our youth how to treat themselves – and others – with love, dignity, and respect.

We know that it often is easier to teach by example – more so than it is to teach what we neither believe in nor live. That is why we who are Yeshua’s followers not only need to frame, hang, quote and/or skywrite the golden rule, but also we first need to illustrate its principle by daily living it. We need to be godly parents, mentors, pastors, worship leaders, community leaders, schoolteachers, school officials, politicians, and etcetera, who truly demonstrate moral, ethical, holy, and righteous living. Let us be the genuine Yeshua-like individuals our youth need to emulate. Shalom.

“Do to others as you would have them do to you.” ~ Luke 6:31

Keep it real … Live it out … Watch it work!