“Take heed to your selves; if thy brother trespass against thee,
rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.” (Luke 17:3)
That makes me feel a little better. Somehow I got the
feeling that as Christens we are suppose to forgive in silence. I am glad to
know that if someone does something against me I can say, “Hey those were my
toes you stepped on. That really hurt.” Then IF he repents I will forgive him.
Sometimes I get so hung up on letting go of the hurt that I forget the part about
rebuking that I forgive him anyway. What happens when I do that is that I don’t
give the other person an opportunity to hear my side of the story and see why
they need to repent. Maybe there is something I need to hear also that I was
also at fault.
I try to be Christ-like in my dealings and try to think how Christ would handle the situation and yet sometimes I lose my cool. There are
several people with whom I have a standing misunderstanding. I don’t know if
they intentionally go out of their way to rile me or what, but it happens. I
think that’s covered in the next verse. “And if he trespasses against thee
seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee saying I repent,
forgive him.”
But here again he
repented. The Lord did not say what to do if they don’t repent. I know that
from experience I have to let it go and consider the source, but I really like
the apostles response to forgiving seven times in a day. Lord. "Increase our Faith.” Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment