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How God's Love Becomes Personal (Devotional).

LavenderC
LavenderC

                                              By Deep Spirituality


                                             (deepspirituality.com)


The Forgiven Woman and the Parable of the Forgiven Debt: How God's Love Becomes Personal

 

Forgiveness is powerful.

 

In high school and college, I remember feeling like I wanted to have close friends, but I couldn’t figure out how. Eventually, I began to study the Bible with a few students from school. From reading passages of the Bible and talking about life with these friends, it slowly became clear to me that I had been holding on to a lot of anger and bitterness from past hurts in my family. My decision not to forgive them had created a hard and unloving heart within me, and that’s why I was incapable of making any close friends. 

 

Forgiving those who had hurt me wasn’t easy, but as I read the Bible I learned that God loved me so much that he would forgive me for everything I had ever done. His forgiveness and love became personal to me; my heart softened, and I became ready to extend that same forgiveness to my family.

 

Though I wanted close relationships, I needed God to teach me to love, just as this verse says: 

 

Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.

 

1 Thessalonians 4:9 NIV

 










I am grateful that God taught me how to forgive and love, because I wanted to be close to friends but could not do so by myself.

When God’s love becomes personal to us, it changes our lives and our relationships. This is what happened to me when I began to understand God’s unconditional love, and it’s something that can and should happen to us on a regular basis as Christians. Becoming aware of our mistakes, shortcomings, and sins can actually be a good thing because it helps us appreciate God’s undeserved kindness and extend that kindness to others.

In Luke 7, we learn about a woman who had a very personal understanding of God’s love and forgiveness. God’s love made her bold, grateful, and kind. She was far from perfect, but she had a close, powerful, and personal relationship with God. Prompted by his interaction with her, Jesus took the opportunity to teach an important spiritual lesson about the power of forgiveness in the Parable of the Forgiven Debt.

[Part of a long devotional in "Deep Spirituality." Author unknown. Probably written by different editors of the "Deep Spirituality" organization (group)].



Beryl367
Beryl367
It's so true, when we hold on to pain and let it lead to unforgiveness we protect ourselves from future pain, but we also prevent ourselves from future fulfillment.

Like the author said "it slowly became clear to me that I had been holding on to a lot of anger and bitterness from past hurts in my family"

Thanks for sharing.

I overheard a person saying the way to recover from damaging relationships is to insert prayer. Pray about the people you let into your life who? And in what capacity? It sounds like good advice to me, but I admit I'm not following it at the moment.

Peace and blessings to you all.
LavenderC
LavenderC
There is a joke that goes "To err is human, to forgive is not in my dictionary." I used to laugh when I heard that. In some cases, the best I can do is not do any harm to the person who upsets me. It is difficult to forgive when the persons never apologize or do something to make up for it. Sometimes it is difficult to pray for the persons who hurt us. That was my experience.
Beryl367
Beryl367
Yes, forgiving peop!e is not easy. There are still some people I am "working on" forgiving.

In reading through the Bible I have over the years come across these verses that have helped me:

Ezekiel 33:11
New King James Version
11 Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’

And

Proverbs 24:17-18
New King James Version
17 Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,
And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles;
18 Lest the Lord see it, and it displease Him,
And He turn away His wrath from him.

The implication of verse 18 being that God would turn His wrath toward the smug person.

I know everyone has their own verses that help hem, these are just the ones that have helped me see this from God's perspective.

May God bless you and keep you.
LavenderC
LavenderC
I am thinking about the verse that says we can be angry but do not sin. I am usually doing well with the "do not sin (towards the person who angers me) but let the sun go down again and again. (Ephesians 4:26 "In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.") I could benefit from an anger management course.
Beryl367
Beryl367
Ah, the thought life, it can be very challenging at times. When I was younger I would do word studies where I would look up all the verses about a particular subject and read them, but the part where I was supposed to apply them was always more difficult. I think back then I was more afraid of God, as if He were sitting up there waiting for me to fail. My view of God has improved. Now that I know that he wants me to succeed in for example developing patience (which I have had some trouble with) then I'm more confident that He will help me grow toward those goals. As far as anger goes, we're so blessed every time that God prevents us from acting or speaking in anger. Sometimes I have mistakenly blamed people for stuff that was not their fault and I'm really glad for the times that God kept me from telling them so..
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