If
you live long enough you obtain some wounds from other people and if you are
humble enough to admit it, you probably have caused some wounds along the way. In Jesus model prayer (Matthew
6:7-15), also known as the Lord’s
Prayer, He refers to these wounds as DEBTS. He could have chosen many words to
describe these particular sins that we have committed and other have committed
toward us, but I think He was very intentional in His word choice.
When you think about the
word DEBT it carries that connotation that something is owed. What is owed is
unique to specific DEBT.
For instance if someone has lied to you they owe you an apology and the truth.
As we seek many times what is owed to us we encounter a roadblock. Possibly
someone who is unwilling to admit their wrong or can’t return to us our dignity
or what is owed to us. Depending on our
personality and other factors we may push hard for them to pay what was owed or
we stuff it down and try and move on. Both responses create a seed of
un-forgiveness that grows over time to impact our heart and our ability to love
others the way that God loves us.
The
solution is to forgive. But we struggle to forgive many times because we
misunderstand the true definition of forgiveness. For instance we think is we
forgive someone we are excusing what they did and justifying it. But this is
not what forgiveness really is. True
forgiveness is best understood by understanding how God forgave us. God new
that we would never fully be able to pay back all that we owed to him based on
our personal DEBT that we accumulated over the coarse of our lifetime.
Therefore, He sent His one and only unique Son to pay our DEBT. We did not
deserve this forgiveness, we did not pay what was owed, and yet God canceled our
DEBT based on what Jesus did. This reality when accepted frees a person from
the burden of their DEBTs that they could never afford to pay and removes the
power of those DEBTs to cripple that persons capacity for love.
When
you hold a seed of un-forgiveness it poisons your soul to the point that you
can’t function. When you forgive someone
you cancel what they owe you! You don’t expect the payment because you
believe that because God has canceled your DEBT He also wants to cancel that
persons DEBT as well. This frees you
from the expectation that person will ever pay what they owe you. It does
not mean that you would put yourself back into a situation where you would be
hurt again or that you excuse the natural consequences of that person’s DEBT.
It also means that you leave their personal journey of seeking their own forgiveness
with them. YOU ARE FREE!
This
week at Grace
Seaford, and
Grace
Online
we will be sharing on how you can experience freedom from personal hurts or
DEBTS. Our prayer is that you will be set free from your DEBTS and that you as
you forgive those who OWE you a DEBT. If you can’t make it physically you can experience
the message here: https://faithlife.com/graceseaford/activity or you can experience our online campus
here: http://live.graceonline.church. May
God set us all free through Christ’s love this weekend!
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