Confrontation and Restoration

Scripture Reading:  Matthew 18:15-35

Focus Verses:  Matthew 18:21-22  Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, Lord how often should I forgive someone who sins against me?  Seven times?  No, Jesus replied, seventy times seven.

There is a story that is told about a father and son.  The relationship was broken for quite some time.  So the father posted a sign in the town that read:  "Son------all is forgiven.  Meet me here at sunset".   At the appointed time seventy-five young men showed up.  Perhaps we don't realize how many broken relationships there are all around us.  Maybe you are thinking of a broken relationship in your life right now while reading this.  Life is too short to hold a grudge against someone.

Jesus said we should forgive 70x7.  That's 490 times.  Does that mean we don't forgive the 491st time?  No, I think the point Jesus is making that we should always forgive our brother or sister no matter how many times they have wronged us.

Is there a relationship in your life that needs repairing?  Maybe it's someone you have not talked to in years.  Obviously, you are trying to live the Christian life because you are reading this devotion.  What do you think would happen if you made the first step in repairing that relationship?  It just might change your life. Ask God to help you, He will.

Bobby Johnson
Interlocking Ministries

Economy of the Heart

Bible Reading: (click to view in web browser)
Colossians 3:12-14


Focus verse: "Bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another."  Colossians 3:13a

In his book, The Gift of Forgiveness, Charles Stanley wrote, "Forgiveness is something each of us has had to deal with one way or another. What might take you just a short time to work through might be a process that takes someone else time, prayer, and godly counsel. But it is a process we cannot ignore, not if we want to be free to become the persons God created us to be."1

Stanley went on to say that if we refuse to deal with the bitterness and resentments that put us in bondage, we cannot have the fellowship with our Father we are supposed to have.

It's not easy to forgive another. Some wounds are deep and last for decades. But hatred and bitterness are bars we use to imprison ourselves. When we place the other person in God's hands and release the bitterness to Him, we're set free, just as truly as being released from jail.

Forgiveness is the economy of the heart. A Christian will find it cheaper to pardon than to resent. Forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits.
From The Berean Magazine, November 21, 1826

1Charles Stanley, The Gift of Forgiveness (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991), 105.

~Dr. David Jeremiah, Today's Turning Point