Devotion
God Pardons Us
Frances Taylor
We all know that forgiveness can be difficult. Maybe we wonder if God feels the same. We know Jesus told Peter, and therefore us, to forgive seventy times seven times, meaning forever, but did he really mean it? This passage from Micah tells us that God really does pardon our sins and buries them in the depth of the sea, in other words, out of memory. What we have trouble with is not only forgiving the sin, but forgiving the person who sinned against us. What do I mean by that? God wipes the slate clean and lets us start over, but we want the person who sinned against us to prove himself worthy of our trust.
Now, I'm not talking about sins that have caused severe damage to a person or their reputation, these sins may be forgiven but we don't put ourselves into a situation where the damage may happen again. Forgive and forget might sound nice, but some situations should not be forgotten. However, forgiveness is important. Lack of forgiveness can hold us bound in ways that can destroy us physically or spiritually. Holding on to grudges and anger can cause physical damage such as high blood pressure or ulcers, it can keep us from enjoying life because we refuse to be in the presence of the person who sinned against us, or we can become hardened and be unwilling to trust anyone. Let us make time this Lent to see if we are holding a grudge against anyone in the past who might have hurt us. God forgives us, and calls us to forgive others.
Prayer
Compassionate and forgiving God, help us to let go of hurts of the past and be there with us giving us the strength we need to forgive when it is hard. Amen.
Night Prayer
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
Inspiration
We despise the thought of a pile of dirty dishes in the sink. The outside is easy to clean; it's the caked-up residue on the inside that's so difficult to remove. Jesus compares the scribes and Pharisees with dishes that have been wiped clean on the outside while dirty inside. The Pharisees took exceptional care of their outward appearance and neglected their inward spirits. We are guilty of allowing our hearts to be left filthy as well. We look and act as we should while our souls are full of darkness. We must continue to converse with the Holy Spirit daily and trust His guidance to cleanse our sinful nature.
Prayer
Dear God, Please forgive our sinful nature. We yearn for cleansing from within, so we are genuine witnesses to Your name. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
