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Inspirational Article
From
Joanne Lowe
Index of Writings by Joanne Lowe on Gospel Web
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Inspirational Article
From
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I knocked on the door hesitantly and fearfully. I knew that I was in big trouble because once again I had done something that I promised not to do. I had to wait twenty minutes for someone to answer the door. As the minutes dragged by, with each minute feeling like it was an hour, my hands started shaking, my heart was racing and I felt like I was going to faint. Finally, the door opened and the first thing I saw was the anger on the man’s face. I told him what I had done and that I was very sorry that I had broken my word to him. He looked at me and said four words “I will never forgive you”. I turned away and left with a broken heart. I felt like I was a failure at everything I tried to do and I might as well stop trying.
The scene that I have just made up perhaps might have really happened to someone. What will happen to us if we go to Jesus and tell Him that we have failed Him once again? Will He look at us with anger and say “I will never forgive you”? Absolutely not! We have a precious and loving Saviour who loves us so much that He died for us. Thank God that we have the assurance of forgiveness from the heart of our compassionate Saviour.
I think He opens the door with a smile on His face and joy in His heart because we have come to talk to Him. I believe He opens His arms and waits for us to run into them so that He can hug us and reassure us of His forgiveness, understanding, compassion and unconditional love for us. O that we would open our arms and hug the ones who hurt us and forgive them just as Jesus forgives us! We need to pray and ask God to help us be compassionate, understanding, loving and forgiving to those who hurt us. We can’t do it on our own. We don’t have that kind of love. Only Jesus can give us an unconditional love for the ones who have hurt us.
Have you ever said “I will never forgive you” to someone? You may not have said it but you thought it in your heart and that is worse because you were being dishonest with the person. Have you made someone feel like a failure because of your cruel and insensitive words? We want people to forgive us when we hurt them, yet many times we aren’t willing to forgive them when they hurt us. Worse than that, we expect our Heavenly Father to forgive us when we fail Him time after time. Yet while we are asking for His forgiveness for failing Him, we are still holding on to the bitterness, resentment and unforgiveness for the people who have hurt us.
How dare we go to a Holy God and expect Him to forgive us when our hearts are full of things that displease and hurt Him? It’s time that we start treating Him with the respect and honor that He deserves. We need to approach Him with a broken and contrite heart for hurting and failing Him. It is a privilege to be able to go to our Heavenly Father and we need to stop taking it for granted.