During the children’s sermon one Sunday, a pastor held up an ugly looking summer shirt that he wore around the house.  He explained that someone said the shirt was ugly and that it should be thrown away.

         The pastor said, “This really hurt me, and I’m having trouble forgiving the person who said those mean things.  Do you think I should forgive that person?”, he asked.  Immediately his six-year-old daughter raised her hand.  “Yes, you should, she said without hesitation.”  “But why?”, he asked.  “The person hurt my feelings.”

         To which his daughter answered, “Because you’re married to her!”

         Choosing to forgive is sometimes difficult ground to navigate once our feelings are hurt.  We first have to put our feelings aside and deal with what may be another person’s truth.  At the same time, we have to consider the number of times we may have hurt someone and never sought forgiveness or reconciliation.  The other consideration is whether or not, the other person has asked for our forgiveness.  That becomes complicated because we have already received God’s forgiveness, and been reconciled without our request, remembering “ … but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

         It may be an important point to remember that we received forgiveness before we asked for it.  It may just be that “heart inspired forgiveness” is just like that — if offers forgiveness even before it’s asked for.  When it’s offered that way, it comes with the added benefit of unconditional love — God’s greatest gift of mercy.

• What conditions would have to exist in order for you to offer heart inspired forgiveness to someone without them asking for it?
• Why is this forgiveness different from forgiveness which is asked for?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
God of grace, fill me with Your grace of heart inspired forgiveness so that I may always forgive others as you forgive me.

         Several years ago, coach Joe Paterno and his Penn State football team were playing for a national championship against Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.  They probably would have won, but they had a touchdown called back because there was a twelfth man on the field.  After the game, Paterno was asked to identify the player.  “It’s only a game,” he said.  “I have no intention of identifying the boy.  He just made a mistake.”

         What could have been a national embarrassment for a young football player was dismissed because the Penn State football coach was able to forgive a young player for simply making a mistake.  Did it cost Penn State the national championship?  Probably.  But Joe Paterno’s forgiveness did much more.  It saved a young man from becoming a national embarrassment, a public humiliation, and perhaps the emotional, spiritual, and mental security of a young man.

         We have no idea the power of forgiveness when it is inspired from the heart.  It does in some very real ways, exactly what our scripture says it does when offered with compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.  It has the ability to remove the sins of another person and give them a chance to live again.

• Why is forgiveness that is inspired by the heart so much more meaningful than the idea of forgiving and forgetting?
• What can we do to create a more heart inspired forgiveness for others in ourselves?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Merciful God, enable me to see others simply as those — who like me — are capable of making mistakes. Empower me to offer them forgiveness inspired from my heart and shaped by Your forgiveness of me.

         Years ago, the pain of enslavement — even of one family member to another — was more of an employer/employee relationship.  The contract of enslavement was only in effect for seven years.  At that point, the Year of Jubilee began and their family members were to be released.  In some ways it was a forced forgiveness, believing that after seven years, any debt owed was wiped clean.  And yet, there was a heart attachment to the family’s release because it was family members who had been sold into slavery.

         For many of us, it’s difficult to see the enslavement of family, forgiveness, and the setting free of family connected in any way.  However, if we see each other as family, then the Year of Jubilee comes as God’s invitation for us to forgive each other, setting each other free more often than every seven years.  It’s an invitation to forgive each other more that seven times, or seventy-seven times.

         Heart inspired forgiveness reaches beyond the limits of family and extends to one another and allows us to forgive and forget.  It additionally removes time as an appropriate element of consideration.  Forgiveness inspired from the heart can be available whenever a person has acknowledged their wrongdoing and asks for it.  It immediately relieves the person asking for forgiveness of the debt owed.  It additionally relieves the forgiving person of the responsibility to remember the sin that was committed.  It essentially frees the hearts of both the sinner and the forgiver with equity.

• What makes seeing each other as brothers and sisters in need of immediate forgiveness so difficult?
• How does heart inspired forgiveness differ from forgiveness that is offered as a duty to be carried out?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, create in me a heart that offers inspired forgiveness — not as a duty to be carried out — but as a gift that frees all who ask it of me.