Luke 17:3-4
"Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him and if he repents, forgive him and if he sins against you seven times in the day and turns to you seven times, saying "I repent", you must forgive him."
I love this section of scripture and hate it all at the same time. I know it sounds horrible to say I "hate" a section of scripture, but it is just because it is hard and convicting.
I tend to have a hard time fully forgiving and moving past something. I tend to remember everything which is good on one hand, but a detriment on the other. I remember the bad. I remember how someone has hurt me and I hold on to it.
I want to be forgiven, yet I have a hard time wanting to forgive others especially when it is the same hurt over and over.
These verses really convicted me though. It says, "you MUST forgive him." There is no, "you can or you should" but a command. Agghhh...I need to take that one seriously. Even when it is hard to forgive someone, I MUST do it and I know in doing it, how much power there is.
Since I tend to be a perfectionist, I have a hard time when it comes to forgiving the same person again and again. BUT God has been gracious for me and helped me to work through the fact that I might have to forgive someone several times. I tend to think, "I forgave _________ for ________ so I should not have to forgive __________ for that anymore." I tend to beat myself up when it comes up again which is not the right way to look at it. Instead, the way that God is showing me to look at it is that each time I forgive, I gain a little more freedom.
Who do you need to forgive TODAY or in this moment?
Will you allow God to help you forgive them even if it is something they have done multiple times?
